වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

2008 වසරේ පමණ ඉරිදා ලංකාදීප පුවත් පතේ ඕනෑම ලෙඩක් සුව කරන එලොවින් ආ ජීවකයෙකු ගැන වාර්තා පළ විය​. මෙම ලිපි මාලාව ලියන ලද්දේ නන්දසේන සූරියආරච්චි නම් පුවත්පත් කලාවේදියෙකි. මෙම එලොවින් ආ ජීවකයා ලංකාවේ පමණක් නොව ලෝකයේ ප්‍රසිද්ධ පුද්ගලයන් පවා වෙදකම් මගින් සුවපත් කොට ඇති බව සඳහන් විය​. එසේම විවිධ ඡායාරූපද පළ විය​. එක් ලිපියක දැක්වූ පරිදි ඔහු හිටපු ජර්මානු චාන්සලර් හෙල්මුට් කෝල්ටද ප්‍රතිකාර කර තිබුණි.

පුවත්පත් කලාවේදියා සමග එක්ව එලොවින් ආ ජීවකයා විසින් කරන ව්‍යාජ රඟපෑම මුලින්ම ප්‍රශ්න කරන ලද්දේ ගාමිනී වියන්ගොඩ මහතා විසිනි.  එලොවින් ආ ජීවකයා ගැන පළ කරන ලද ඡායාරූප වල ඇති බොරුවද ගාමිනී වියන්ගොඩ මහතාගේ ප්‍රශ්න  කිරීම් වලට හසු විය​. ඒ සම්බන්ධයෙන් ලිපියක් රාවය පුවත් පතේ පළ විය​.

කෙසේ වෙතත් මුලාවූ ජනයා පෝලිම් ගැසී ප්‍රතිකාර සඳහා මේ ඊනියා ජීවකයා වෙත ගියහ​. ඒ අතර ප්‍රසිද්ධ චරිත පවා වූහ​. මේ බොරුව ගැන රටට හෙලිදරව් කල යුතු බව මම අපගේ ජේෂ්ඨ වෛද්‍යවරු  අමතා කීවෙමි. නමුත් මෙම කටයුත්තේදී බොහෝ දෙනෙකු පෙරමුණ ගැනීමට බිය වූහ​. අවසානයේදී ලක්බිම පුවත්පතේ සහයෙන් මම ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ එලොවින් ආ ජීවකයාට අභියෝග කලෙමි.

මාගේ අභියෝගය වූයේ සුව කල නොහැකි බවට වෛද්‍යවරුන් විසින් සනාත කරන ලද රෝගීන් 10 දෙනෙකු අතරින් එක් රෝගියෙකු හෝ සුව කොට පෙන්වන ලෙසටයි.  මෙම අභියෝගය ලක්බිම පුවත්පතේ පළ වීමත් සමගම එලොවින් ආ ජීවකයා පසු බැස ගියේය​. ලංකාදීප පුවත්පතේ පළවූ නන්දසේන සූරියආරච්චිගේ ලිපිද නැවතුනි.

ඉන් මාස කීපයකට පසුව මට ශ්‍රී ලංකා හේතුවාදී සංගමයේ ධර්මපාල සහ තාරක වරාපිටිය යන මහතුන් හමු විය​. මිත්‍යාව සහ වංචාව මගින් සමාජය රැවටීමට තැත් කල වංචනිකයන් දෙදෙනෙකුට කෙලින්ම අභියෝග කිරීම පිළිබඳව ඔවුහු මට ස්තූති කලහ​.

වෛද්‍ය රුවන් එම් ජයතුංග 

ධර්මසිරි සෙනෙවිරත්න

                                                          හොරුද තක්කඩි යන්අගමැති වූ වහාම භික්ෂුන් කොන්කළේය උඩරට ද වේවා සමලිංගිකයන් හෝ බෞද්ධ මන්ඩ ලේ ලොක්කන් වන  කරු ජයසුරිය වැ න්නන් වේවා  එක්සත් ජාතික පක්ෂයේ සියලුදෙනාම  රට තුල විජාතික චින්තනය රජ කරවීමට  එක්සිත්ව කැපවී ඇත . කරු  ජයසූරියට බෞද්ධ චින්තනයට වඩා  විජාතික චින්තනය අගනේය  D S   සිට රනිල් වික්රමසින්හා  දක්වා  මෙහි සියලු නායකයෝ ඒ සඳහා කපවුහ. ඩී  එස්  අගමැතිවූ වහාම භික්ෂුන් කොන්කළේය  එසේ   කලේ ඉතිහාසය නොසල කමිනි උදටටියන්ගේ ඉඩම් ආපසු ලබා නොදී උන් වෙන පලාත්වල ගාල් කළහ  ජනපද කරණය ඉතා හොඳ වුවත්  පළමුවෙන්ම කලයුතුවුයේ අසරණ උදරටියන්ට පිහිට වීමය්  එසේ නොකළේ සුද්දන්ගේ දේපල රකීමටය  උන් පිනවීමටය ඒ වන විට  සිටි කල්ලතෝනීන් පිටමන් නොකලෙත් ඒ  නිසාමය ජේ ආර් ප්‍රේමදාස මුන් බුරුතු පිටින් රටවැසියන් කලෙත් ඒ සඳහාමය මිලේනියම් සිටි පාවා දුන්නෙත් කොටි සමග හොර ගිවිසුම් ගැහුවෙත්  එහෙයිනි  අද බුදුදහම පාසලෙන් ඉවත් කරන්නෙත් බුදු සසුන ට රටේ තිබු  විශේෂත්වය  නැතිකරන ව්‍යවස්ථා හදන්න කඩිමුඩියේ දඟලන්නෙත්  එහ්යිනි
පක්ෂයේ ලොකුකුඩා  සියල්ලෝම  මේ සඳහා එක්සත්ව එක්සිත්ව නැගී සිටිති
එහෙත්  ශ්‍රී ලනිපයේ  ඇත්තන්  තුල මේ එක්සත් කම නැත  විජාතික චින්තනයට  විරුධ්ධයය් කියන ඒ පක්ෂයේ සමලින්ගිකයෝ ෆෙඩ රල්යනායක මයිත්ත්රී විජාතික හා ජාතික අතර හිරවූ   පජාතිකයෙක් වී ඇත .හිටපු නායක මහින්දට ජාතික චින්ත නය වෙනුවට ඇත්තේ  තමන්ගේම පටු චින්තනයකි . ජාතික ව්‍යාපාරයෙන්  නලින්ද සිල්වා කොන්කර ඇත .ගුණදාස අමරසේකර පුනර්භවය පිළිනොගන්නා බෞධ්ධයෙකි එහෙයින් පුනර් භාවය පිළිගන්නා නලින් ට කැමති නැත.
එකා බද්ධ විපක්ෂයේ   පැහැදිලි දර්ශනයක්  නැත .මෙහෙම නැවත දිනුවත් 13අ නම් අහෝසි වන්නේ නැත .විමල් ප්‍රාඥයෙක් නොවේ   ඔහු හොඳ දර්ශනය ලොවට පැහැදිලි කිරීමටය් ඒ සඳහා කෝ දර්ශනයක් මොවුන් නලින්ට කැමති නැත්තේ  තමන්ගේ  ඉස්මතු වීමට නලින් පරහක් වෙයය් සිතාය  නලින්ට අවශ්ෂ්‍ය තනතුරක් නැත  මහින්දට වඩා බොහෝ ය ගොතාභයට කැමැත්තක් දැක වන්නේ  මහින්දට වඩා ඔහු  කෙලින් මිනිහෙක් යය සිතනා හෙයිනි .
එය ගැන මීට වඩා එකාබධ්ධ  විපක්ෂයේ ය හිත්වොත් හොඳය දෙන්නාගේ වෙනාස මොකක් ද
ඒ වෙනස සැප  වියහැක 

Editorial The Island January 12, 2016

India is reported to have shot down a multi-million-dollar fighter jet deal between Sri Lanka and Pakistan/China. New Delhi has made known its opposition to the proposed transaction in no uncertain terms, through a non-paper diplomatic missive conveyed to the highest echelons of the Sri Lankan government, according to a news item we published yesterday, quoting an Indian newspaper. New Delhi has reportedly given, in its diplomatic message, a negative technical assessment of the jets (JF-17 Thunder) and unsolicited advice that Sri Lanka does not need fighter jets.

India needs to be thanked if its negative technical assessment of fighter jets at issue is unbiased and accurate. But, obviously, New Delhi is not trying to prevent Colombo from buying a pig in a poke or help cut down on Sri Lanka’s defence expenditure. It is all out to prevent the further strengthening of defence ties between its rivals and Sri Lanka. It knows, as our report says, that the jet deal will enable Pakistan and China to set up a facility here for aircraft maintenance etc, and help widen contacts between Pakistan and Chinese security forces and their Sri Lankan counterparts.

India cannot be faulted for insisting that Sri Lanka does not need fighter jets though the SLAF fleet is ageing. The Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government and its backers keep telling us that there is no possibility of terrorism raising its head ever again. Those who warn of the possibility of the LTTE making a comeback and stress the need for taking precautions are branded ‘racists’. After all, one of the main campaign slogans of the opponents of the Rajapaksas in the run-up to the last presidential election was that the war was over and the time had come for reconciliation and economic development.

The new government has undertaken to demilitarise the North and the East. Many checkpoints have been dismantled; lands previously held by the military are being given back to their rightful owners. Hardcore LTTE cadres are released. It was only the other day that President Maithripala Sirisena made a big show of pardoning an LTTE cadre who had tried to assassinate him while he was a minister of the Rajapaksa regime! All this, however, does not mean the government is not fighting a war though terrorism is a thing of the past. It is at war with the Rajapaksa faction of the SLFP! But, it does not need fighter jets for that purpose; it can manage with the FCID, CIABOC, the CID, the kept media etc. Therefore, New Delhi may have thought there was absolutely no need for Sri Lanka to go for fighter jets. (Never mind those supersonic flying machines! One wonders whether Sri Lanka has any need for transport aircraft either. For, it can always depend on India to airdrop essentials including food items like parippu in an emergency!)

Now that India has technically assessed the Chinese jets assembled in Pakistan, China and/or Pakistan can return the favour by carrying out a similar assessment of the Indian vehicles, especially the boneshakers that pass for buses, which this country is being flooded with?

Our news report mentions that the Rajapaksa government was planning to have a Chinese maintenance and servicing facility for the SLAF aircraft in Trincomalee in spite of India’s concerns. Was that one of the reasons why, as former President Mahinda Rajapaksa says, he got a RAW deal from India at the last presidential election which he lost to an erstwhile chum turned bête noire wearing a Modi jacket. The Chinese project in Trincomalee has been shelved after the change of government last January, our report says. The Colombo Port City Project was also suspended immediately after the Jan. 08 presidential election.

A small country located in a strategic part of the world is in the same predicament as a lonely damsel, in a rough neighbourhood, who has to answer the door whenever randy thugs bang on it menacingly.

By Charles.S.Perera

To day Sri Lanka is not  socially, politically and economically in a settled state for this Government to decide on  writing a new Constitution.  The Communities are divided as it had never been before, the Tamils are acting as  if they are already a Community apart.  Sampanthan who is critical of the  Sinhala majority, and fights  for the recognition of Tamils as a separate entity  cannot possible be recognised as the leader of the Opposition. In the mean time the Muslims are claiming a separate administration in line with the Tamil Community.

Normally the Opposition in a democratic system is a government in waiting ,  to replace the government in place in case of its defeat in Parliament, or as an alternative at the next Parliamentary election.  Is the opposition with Sampanthan as its leader and Anura Dissanayake the Chief Opposition Whip suitable for an alternative government ?

Bikkhus Ratana ,  Omalpe, (and Late Sobhita) are political monks, who were interested in the  political aspect of the country ,  can they therefore  be expected to look after the interest of Buddhism, because they helped Maitripala Sirisena and Rani Wickramasinghe mess up Sri Lanka?

Under the present government,  Sri Lanka has lost its independence. Whatever the President Maithripala Sirisena says about an existing good governance, the people knows that Sri Lanka is unrecognisably  changed from what it had been before.  There is no governance at all where the people could place their confidence. Sri Lanka is being shaped into a banana State” of  foreign domination for the benefit of USA , the West and India. 

Sri Lanka is not being ruled according to the decisions taken by the Parliament of Sri Lanka, and its government,  but according to the dictates of USA , the West, India and Prince Zeid Ra’ad Al-Hussein. Ranil and Chandrika are the Agents representing the interests of the USA and the West.

UK is reorganising the Armed Forces of Sri Lanka in the North. India dictates whether Sri Lanka needs fighter planes or not. An agreement signed between Sri Lanka and Pakistan  for the purchase of fighter jets has been turned down by Sri Lanka on a demand made by India :

However, mere days after the deal was reported…. the deal had been cancelled. The reason for the cancellation of the deal is revealing of current diplomatic dynamics in South Asia. According to the Indian Express, the Sri Lankan government, led by President Maithripala Sirisena, cancelled its plans to purchase the JF-17s after a diplomatic missive” from New Delhi suggesting that Colombo should refrain from adding these aircraft to its fleet.”

It has already been reported by the Reuters that,  an unidentified  European Investor has agreed to park  US$ one billion to help Sri Lanka  to  sore up forex-reserves and defend its currency.

Is Sri Lanka being sold to foreign interests ?

Security of Sri Lanka has completely broken down,  Maithripala Siriseana acts in his own interest to boost his ego since he has already lost his Presidential  powers to Ranil. He   releases lands for the Tamils, and releases terrorists who had been imprisoned.  He gives into the demands of the Tamil politicians, Wigneshawaran, and the Tamil diaspora for devolution of political power.

Maithripala Sirisena who says that wearing a trouser or a white shirt does not make a gentleman, is not a gentleman himself,  having stabbed his leader on the back to fulfil his political ambition and join a set of politicians completely opposed to the development of Sri Lanka as an independent Sovereign State. Maithripala Sirisena, Ranil and Chandrika are all self seeking individuals, full of personality belief(sakkaya ditti). 

Therefore, they cannot be depended  as patriots who will act in the interest of the country. We cannot depend on them  to preserve Sri Lanka’s Sinhala  Buddhist cultural tradition, which is what is special about Sri Lanka.  It is what which distinguishes Sri Lanka from India, or  a Muslim or a Christian Country.

The existing Constitution had served Sri Lanka through its  most difficult period of time and it should not be shelved in preference to a patch up” Constitution to satisfy the wants of only a selected  group of people of Sri Lanka or USA or the West. At the time JR Jayawardhana wrote the Constitution of 1978, the country was still not divided as it is today and there was at least a semblance of unity amoung the Communities.  The same cannot be said of Sri Lanka under yahapalanaya.

The present government with Sirisena –Ranil and Chandrika at its head has one thing in its mind , which is to make the people of Sri Lanka forget what Sri Lanka was under Mahinda Rajapakse from 2005 to 2015 (a peaceful vibrant  developing country)

It is only a popular government of the people which  could write a new Constitution if  it desires, but the present government of President Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil wickramasinghe, is not a popular government. They have  just  managed to group together self interested,  bought over political individuals from few other political  parties and call themselves a national government. 

President Maithripala Sirisena did  not  get the popular vote of the people of Sri Lanka as a whole. Sirisena  was elected President   because the Tamils  in the North and East, and the Muslims and Catholics elsewhere voted en block for him, and Ranil formed his government after the Parliamentary elections  with the TNA-which got the majority Tamil votes from the North and the East.

Yahapalanaya government of Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasingha is not a popular government of the people, therefore this government has no mandate of the people to write a New Constitution to Sri Lanka

The people of Sri Lanka has other hides to beat than think of a new Constitution.  The cost of living is unbearably high, prices of consumable articles have risen beyond the reach of  the people, unemployment is  soaring, there is dissatisfaction in the hearts of the people,  they do not want the Yahapalanaya government any more, but they have no alternative and are therefore forced to put up with it.

Yet Maithripala has overlooked every thing to dump a new Constitution on the people.

A steering Committee has been named by the Prime Minister for the purpose of the preparation of the New Constitution.  The members of the Committee had been selected by Ranil Wickramasinghe- the Prime Minister and they do  not represent the  political view of all sections of the people.  There is doubt about the honesty of the man selected to write the Constitution  Dr. Jayampati Wickramaratne.  Abeyrata.com reported as follows:

Will President’s Counsel Dr.Jayampathi Wickramaratne reveal to the public why he was suspended from Peradeniya University in the final year (1972), just before he could sit for the Bachelor of Science Special Degree in Chemistry?  Wickramaratne is the Presidential Advisor on Constitutional Affairs  and also one of the members of Yahapalana  Sirisena’s much publicized Special Commission to Probe Corruption.”  Apeyrata has reliably unearthed Wickramaratne’s history: he  allegedly has cheated at exams by illegally obtaining question papers.   Report says Finally, he got caught and got suspended”.Wickramaratne has been accused of  conveniently erasing his entire 4 years at Peradeniya from his CV.  After being thrown out of Peradeniya, he went to Law College” the report says.  Did he continue with his cheating ways at Law College too?  Did he buy question papers before the exams?We also ask: Is someone who got suspended from the nation’s highest institution of education for cheating fit to serve on such a commission or even get any type of government position?….” https://www.lankaweb.com/news/items/2015/02/28/suspended-exam-cheat-is-on-sirisenas-special-commission-to-probe-corruption/comment-page-1/

If there are even rumours of the honesty of a man selected  to write or be a member of a team to write the Constitution, should he be considered suitable to write the Constitution of Sri Lanka ?

This government has appointed to important places people on whom people cannot place their confidence , such as the Governor of the Central Bank. The Yahapalanay Government falsely accuses the personnel of the previous government of Mahainda Rajapakse, without investigating the offenders on their side.

In the case of the Journalist Eknaligoda, army officers are being taken for questioning, when there are doubts of involvement of even one of the important Ministers of yahapalanaya about a letter written by Ekneligoda to  lankaenews website on 8^th December, 2009 exposing the Minister’s private life. Has the FCID investigated  the issue ?

Both the President Sirisena and his Prime Minister RanilW gives much publicity that Sri Lanka which  was sidelined by the International Community , has been brought back into its fold.  Of course the International Community was enemies of Sri Lanka during  the period of terrorism against which the previous President Mahinda Rajapakse was fighting.  

But at what a cost did Maithripala Sirisena, and Ranil Wickramasinghe bring  Sri Lanka back into the fold of the International Community ? 

This is how they did it, first they started pacifying India giving it every thing it demanded, such as distancing Sri Lanka from China, allowing CEPA or ECTA agreement to extend Indian services employment  sector to Sri Lanka, building a tunnel and a road to join Tamil Nadu to North of Sri Lanka, and very thankfully accepting USA and UNHRC Geneva Resolution to set up a hybrid  court with foreign lawyers, judges, and prosecutors to try  the Armed Forces for war crimes.

Under these circumstances, can this Government of Sirisena and Ranil still be trusted to write  a new Constitution to Sri Lanka ?

It was the International Community which discouraged Sri Lanka under President Mahinda Rajapakse from taking a military solution against terrorism, and demanded that the government come to a peace settlement.  If Sri Lanka Government under President Mahind Rajapakse was bootliking the USA and the West, like Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe and accepted the demand of the West, we would  have never been able to eliminate terrorism from Sri Lanka.

Another fallacy the yahapalanaya government and its supporters, are  vociferous about  is the democratic  right the journalists now have under yahpalanaya to write, say or criticise this government without fear of being killed or taken in a  White Van.  But the fact was that   there was neither a white van culture, nor a censure of free speech in Sri Lanka under  President Mahinda Rajapakse, and if there was one it cannot be put as imposed by Mahinda Rajapakse.  

So called democratic freedom to speak  under yahapalanaya is utterly  false.  In the Parliament to-day the real opposition to government is the 53 Parliamentarians led by Dinesh Gunawardhana.  But their right to speech is drastically reduced to about 8 minutes to each.  They are unable to stand up and speak freely about this government’s  undemocratic activities which have affected  the Sovereignty of Sri Lanka.  The Government of Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramsinghe has become a Police State, though they keep saying that there is  democratic right to free speech under yahapalanaya government.

It seems even the  speaker of the Parliament is not  free to make an independent ruling in the House ?  It is the Prime Minister who decides for him.  As it is any Constitution written under the aegis of this government of Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe will not be a suitable Constitution acceptable to the people of Sri Lanka. Therefore the writing of it has to be stopped.

Ranil Wickramasinge speaking at the ceremony to mark the One year of Yahapalanaya, said …. Parliament will convene tomorrow (9) to prepare a constitution for the creation of a Constitutional Assembly and that good governance will be confirmed from there onwards”. 

He stated that there are those who oppose the proposal being brought tomorrow as well as those who agree with it. I think it is an attitude difference.”

Tomorrow we have to decide whether we change our attitude to go forward in the path of good governance or whether we continue to remain stuck in the same old politics which was rejected by the public, he said. We who have come this far will not give up the fight.” 

But where then is the democratic right of consulting other parties as to the wisdom of writing a Constitution now ?

It is in the interest of Sri Lanka that they- Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe   change attitude  to go forward in the path of good governance”, because with a police force, a bribery commission and a Commission of Presidential Inquiry the country is not free and all those who had contributed to make this country what it was until the 8^th January,2015, are being constantly put into embarrassment by being arrested and questioned  on false charges, and the government since 8^th January,2015 has not gone one inch forward on the path of progress and development. 

Maithripala Sirisena the President says , if people want to keep the executive presidency because it helped to win the 26 year war, then what it means is that they expect another war.  He has got it all wrong because the threat of  terrorism raising its ugly head again cannot be ruled out under the present climate of the government surrendering all its rights to the North and East, and allowing the Tamil separatists to openly canvass for separation.

Sirisena cannot be assured of the Tamils giving up their demand for separation now, because he has  reduced the military in the North and East and released lands to the Tamils and allowed former terrorists to leave the prison.   C.V.K Sivagnanam the Chairman of the NPC has said in an interview, ….. as citizens of this country we want equal opportunity and on devolution, we should have particular rights to administer ourselves within our North and Eastern territory. Of course there are those who feel that the North and East cannot be merged and certainly they are entitled to say that. We are also on the other hand entitled to say that we want it” .

Sri Lanka  has lost its Sovereignty and has become  a  colony of   USA, the West and  India.

 Ranil said referring to the former Government of President Mahinda Rajapakse ,  as rejected by the public, which is not true as it was only a small population of the Sinhala Buddhists  along with the Sinhala block vote of UNP who voted for the yahapalanay, but the Maithripala Sirisena and UNP was really elected by  the Tamil votes of the North and East and the Muslim votes. 

Therefore, this Government is not a popular government of the people of Sri Lanka. It has no  confidence of the people of Sri Lanka.  Therefore Maithripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe have not the mandated of the people to write a new Constitution to Sri Lanka. They should stop it without adding further to the mess into which they have pushed Sri Lanka.

By Surangani Seneviratne

A year ago Sri Lanka elected a new president, Maithripala Sirisena to a chorus of ‘democracy’ and ‘just government’ cheering on from inside and outside the besieged island. Sirisena was the President Sri Lanka had to have in order not to have a President. The main stage the new President was placed on had a heading of ‘democracy’ and subtext of ‘corruption’ implying that the claimed injustice and nepotism of a previous era was to be erased and a new era of just government / ‘Yahapalanaya’ heralded. ‘Corruption’ and ‘democracy’ have become the war cry of regime change makers even prior to the events that have resulted in deadly consequences in the middle east and elsewhere an ‘Arab Spring’ was sprung upon the people. Yet Sri Lankans, if the 2015 Presidential election and subsequent General election were fair and the results not manipulated by high tech devices, appear to have voted for a change that had disastrous consequences elsewhere. While Maithripala Sirisena is feathering his nest in many ways than the literal- refurbishing the Presidential abode, he appears not to have read the memo that said his main task is to abolish the Executive Presidency. Is Sirisena heading to his Siri Sangabo days- chopping off his own head? He is not a virtuous Buddhist or shown any characteristics of a man willingly give up power and leadership. So the man who likes to compare himself to the Polonnaruwa kings, fall by his own sward?

Maithripala Sirisena made headlines in the international media not on 8^th January, 2015 as the winner / President elect of the ‘new’ Sri Lanka. But a few days ago, as the clueless and pointless leader of a little nation for his remarks on the behaviour of a hormonally charged teenage girl at Enrique Iglesias concert. In January, 2015 the international media was focused on Mahinda Rajapakse trying to justifying his surprise loss at the Presidential elections and completely ignored the new Presidential elect – Maithripala Sirisena. Was Sirisena so stricken by the loss of limelight in January, 2015 that he has to rectify this? The Stingray comments by Sirisena made the bra throwing incident that was best forgotten into an international event. And the President subject of ridicule not only within the nation, mainly in the international media / community.

Is Maithripala Sirisena just a clueless leader? Were his comments on the bra throwing incident due to bad advice from his team? Or was he setup by those in the wings, with ambitions and yearning for the Nobel Peace Prize? Only a few days earlier Maithripala Sirisena was puffed up as the potential recipient, chosen one for the Nobel Peace Prize 2016, a prize given lately to those blatantly towing the line for the status quo. Ranil Wickremasignhe had always looked towards Norway, prayed and said ‘Amen’ to every agreement / demand to get this worthless peace prize. Would Ranil be happy to see Sirisena receive the prize that he sold the nation for? In the final analysis, Sirisena had very little to gain from the ‘Bra-gate’ / bra throwing incident. If he was appealing to the conservative and religious elements of the population, especially among the Sinhala Buddhist, to gain popularity. It may have done more damage than good- drawing attention to his government policies and behaviour of members of his administration. After all, the girl who lost her bra was closely connected to his own select group / the daughter of one of his henchmen! By focusing on ‘Sunscruthiya’ / culture, he brought attention to what his own Ministers are doing to the ‘culture’ according to his own definition. Does what happens in Colombo night clubs fall within his definition of ‘culture’? Or the said destruction of this ‘culture’? They throw more under garments than a bra, and known to use whipping though no Stingrays are harmed!

A video currently doing the social media rounds – the deleted video of President Sirisena’s Official Song for 2016 – does not help the Sirisena cause. The music video depicts Sirisena as chosen by Kings of the Polonnaruwa reign as a suitable candidate to build and protect the nation. It is so cringe worthy that it has been shelved by the Sirisena camp in hindsight. The President himself would have had some input and has participated in the production of this video. Whatever the case maybe it indicates Sirisena’s lack of insight and refinement. Raises the question if Maithripala Sirisena is suitable to occupy the President’s chair even for a brief moment- until he reads the memo to abolish the Executive Presidency.

The Sirisena backers say it is his lack of worldliness as a son of a farmer who rose to high office and politics that makes him a worthy leader. If his lack of refinement was accompanied by wisdom and humility, Sirisena would have been on the same stage as leaders of nations, especially from Latin America (such as José Mujica) that rose to power from very humble origins. And he would have been hounded by US / EU if that was the case. Instead Sirisena was handpicked by these powers for these reasons. They had the foresight to see his ambition, greed and deceitful nature. The man handpicked by them to guide Sri Lanka on a certain destination beyond the task of abolishing the Executive Presidency is becoming a figure of ridicule. And this suits the benefactors abroad and within the island waiting in the wings. They will set him up to fail and ridicule him until he is expendable. From Colombo to Washington they will have their ‘Aiyo Sirisena’ moments.

The movers and shakers in Colombo had already whispered and at times had a few cocktails reflecting on Maithripala Sirisena’s faux pas and lapses. Sirisena’s dress sense when representing the nation was a topic of conversation. It may have been matter of the Presidential entourage not assisting him to put his best foot forward. Or a complete absence of a wardrobe coordinator in the Presidential team. There were several ‘Aiyo Sirisena’ moments when he met the Queen of England and at the Commonwealth Heads meeting. His wardrobe / attire reflected his confusion at times, and he did not appear to look like the leader of nation. Sirisena looked more like the junior staffer from an office in Dakar. His lack of attire when meeting the Queen may have been forgiven by the Colombo elite when he pointed out the Queen’s own lack of attire – the gloveless hand shake. Which Sirisena proudly advertised and was well received in some circles in Colombo!

Maithripala Sirisena, much to the delight of the Colombo elite / his ‘International Community’ backers has lately taken to wearing a ‘mini Modi’ wardrobe- white top and cloth dressed over by a sleeveless ‘Nehru’ jacket. This reflects Sirisena’s demeanour –in the style of ‘Mini- Me’ in the movie, ‘Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me’. Sirisena will say ‘yes, sir’ to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi anytime and all the time. ‘A bridge connecting India from Tamil Nadu to Sri Lanka’- Modi said. ‘Yes sir, how high do I build it sir’ says Maithripala Sirisena’s ‘mini Modi’.

The Yahapalana’s new Sri Lanka has a growing brigade of ‘brown shirts’ / a police force that would put Hitler’s Gestapo to shame. Sirisena is not shy to use them on revenge and repression attacks on civilians, especially those that support the former President Mahinda Rajapakse. He has even used their services to persecute victorious military personnel that defeated the LTTE. In the sidelines is his Prime Minister- Ranil Wickremasignhe, who bent over backwards to accommodate the wishes of the LTTE and made no attempt to address the carnage by this deadly terror group on the civilian population. Then there is Chandrika Kumaratunga still carrying ambitions of high office. And a parliamentary majority consisting of swingers / bed hoppers that swing from one party to the other as fast as they jump from one bed to another. All of them willing to bring back the LTTE and place them in power / terrorising the civilian population from north to south. Maithripala Sirisena is well placed to abuse the powers of Executive Presidency he is still presiding over! Within twelve months he has succeeded in executing all abuses of power he accused the former President / the Rajapakse’s.

Where will the blundering Sirisena end? Behind him are two ambitious former Presidents – Ranil and Chandrika- who chose him to do their bidding and set him up to be the fall guy. Maithripala Sirisena may be from Polonnaruwa, but he is no Parakramabahu. It is a case of when the sword will fall on Siri Sangabo Sirisena!

By Ankit Panda Courtesy The Diplomat

Did India play a part in scuttling a JF-17 deal between Sri Lanka and Pakistan?

As Benjamin Baker wrote last week in The Diplomat, the JF-17 Thunder, a low-cost multi-role fighter built collaboratively by China and Pakistan, has run into some problems on the global fighter market. Recently, every time it appears to have locked down a buyer, problem crop up. Malaysia became the latest supposed buyer of the JF-17 to come out publicly and say that there was no finalized deal. Despite being competitively priced, the JF-17 has proved to be a tough sell for Pakistan Aeronautical Complex and China’s Chengdu Aircraft Corporation, the joint manufacturers of the fighter.

The case of Sri Lanka is the latest curious case of a prospective JF-17 buyer backing down. As Franz-Stefan Gady reported recently, Colombo was expected to sign a multi-million dollar deal to purchas 8 to 12 units of the JF-17 during Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s state visit there last week. Despite a range of announced deals, a JF-17 purchase was not announced during Sharif’s time in Colombo.

Shortly after Sharif’s visit, Sri Lanka’s minister of defense, Karunasena Hettiarachchi, denied that the JF-17 was even discussed. The matter did not even come up for discussion during the talks [with the Pakistani government],” he said, according to The Colombo Gazette. He added that if there arises a requirement for Sri Lanka to procure aircraft of this nature, in keeping with the policy of the Government of Sri Lanka to maintain transparency, expressions of interest will be called for, from all concerned.”

However, mere days after the deal was reported, sources claimed that the deal had been cancelled. The reason for the cancellation of the deal is revealing of current diplomatic dynamics in South Asia. According to TheIndian Express, the Sri Lankan government, led by President Maithripala Sirisena, canceled its plans to purchase the JF-17s after a diplomatic missive” from New Delhi suggesting that Colombo should refrain from adding these aircraft to its fleet.

The report adds that New Delhi included a negative technical assessment of the JF-17 and pointed out that [Sri Lanka’s] defense requirements did not need fighters.” According to the report, the Indian government delivered a non-paper”–described as a white sheet of paper without a letterhead of signature”–to the Sri Lankan government weeks ahead of Sharif’s planned visit.

If true, Sri Lanka’s decision to hold back on the purchase of JF-17 fighters demonstrates that the Sirisena-led government in Colombo is far more deferential to Indian interests than its predecessor was. Under Mahinda Rajapaksa, the former Sri Lankan president, the country tilted considerably toward China. After his surprise election victory last January, Sirisena signaled an intent to balance  Sri Lanka’s foreign policy by visiting New Delhi before Beijing.

It doesn’t appear that India is planning on offering Sri Lanka a substitute for the JF-17. New Delhi’s suggestion that Sri Lanka does not require multi-role fighters for its defense needs suggests that it does not plan to do so in the future. (The closest Indian analog, in terms of cost-per-unit, is the HAL Tejas Light Combat Aircraft, but its feature-set is very different from what the JF-17 offers.)

Courtesy Jakarta Globe

Colombo. Sri Lankan share index fell for a seventh straight session on Tuesday due to panic selling, led by margin calls after the market fell over 3.5 percent in the past six sessions, brokers said.

Fears over investors shifting to risk-free assets such as government securities due to rising yields in government securities also dented sentiment.

The main stock index ended 1.74 percent or 115.97 points down at 6,534.35, the lowest close since July 7, 2014. The index fell as much as 1.85 percent, posting its biggest fall since Aug. 24, 2015.

By Kanthar Balanathan DipEE (UK), GradCert (RelEng-Monash), DipBus&Adm (Finance-Massey), CEng. MIEE, MIE (Aust), CPEng (Ret)

  It is most welcome that the SriLankan Government convened a conference on the economic development based around four key areas as follows:

1. Macroeconomics and Fiscal Stability
2. Structural Transformation and Competitiveness
3. Urbanisation and Development
4. Regional Development and Social Inclusion

Views and opinion in this article is limited to Fiscal Systems only. (Tax Systems)

Although the writer could not view the entire proceeding due to, may be, the upload speed in Colombo was poor.

The views expressed in this article is not to disapprove or criticise the theories and principles discussed in the conference, but to highlight how better SL could perform in restructuring her Fiscal Policy, microenterprises, and competiveness. Let us look at the definition for clearer understanding by all SriLankans.

Macroeconomics?

Macroeconomics is a study of the behaviour of the aggregate economic systems. That is to state the study of the whole of the economies. Macroeconomics primarily concerns with the forecasting of national income through analysis of other economic factors.

Fiscal Stability

The government have to adjust its spending levels and tax rates to influence the nation’s economy. The Central Bank influences its nation’s money supply in its monetary policy. To direct the country’s economic goals, the two policies are used in different combinations

First Step: Let us consider the tax system in SriLanka.

The major shortfall in the economic framework of SriLanka is the tax revenue. This has a large impact on the fiscal policy of the country. In the paper The demand for, and consequences of, formalising among informal firms in SL”, Dr Suresh de Mel, David McKenzie, & Christopher Woodruff discuss on the informality and its impact. This paper reveals that, quote: Even among firms employing paid workers, the majority are unregistered with one or more pertinent agencies”, and only one-fifth of firms operating without paid workers are registered with any government agency”.

The author of this paper would like to refer the informal system in the North. Except the government, corporation and large registered company’s workers, it is likely that at least 99% of the breadwinners (informal) do not pay tax. However, they are engaged in fulltime work generating income to meet purchasing movable and immovable assets. The owners of such enterprises can be classified under microenterprises.

The business dictionary defines microenterprises as: The smallest business in a country which operates with the least capital and number of employees. Usually operates within a small geographic area to provide services or goods for their community”.

The author would like to give a few examples.

1. Masons who claim they are builders in the North, start with low capital, and a few workers in their team. The so called team may not have a business name but operate with its leader’s name. There are significant number of such building teams. They do not take liability for what they build and complete, no insurance, and further none of the workers’ or the business pay tax.
2. Farmers growing vegetable, paddy etc. No tax is paid to the government on the yield or any profit.
3. Fisherman do not declare what they catch, sell, and collect as revenue. No tax is paid.
4. Small scale tea boutiques, shops, operate with may be, two tax receipts books. One for the tax department and, other, the actual.
5. The major portion of individual (microenterprise) revenue is generated from smuggling. The smugglers also employ a few people in their team. They are the richest is the North.

This article gives only a few microenterprise examples.

The inequality widens, because the smugglers become rich, like millionaires, whereas a government service engineer, accountant or clerk remains poor. The government, corporation, and corporate’s employees contribution to the country is enormous, in supporting and development, however, the owners of microenterprises who do not pay one cent tax contribute nothing.

SriLanka’s priority in its economic development is to overhaul the tax system and the tax department. The tax Commissioner should be empowered by the Public Service Commission to recommend/appoint staff to the tax department. The clerks in the tax department are not to be inter-transferable within other departments, as their knowledge and service should be considered special. The tax department should be given special powers by act of parliament. Tax Commissioner should be given special power to conduct audits and checks on individuals if he considers such person has acquired wealth indirectly and or illegally. The salary to the tax department staff should be adequate to cover their responsibility and work.

1. Every breadwinner in a family should have a tax file number, and a simple system of tax return should be in place.
2. Every microenterprise should request and operate with a business number allocated by the Tax department or the Provincial Council. (In some countries such informal business is known as Sole Traders)
3. Every Province is to have the tax department provincial headquarters to manage the tax system.
4. It is a belief that with the current technological advancement, SriLanka could have a complex computerised system to manage the tax system.

Currently the country may have a shortfall in the revenue collected, however, expenditure remains constant or on the increase. People should understand that SriLanka provide its people, free health, education, some goods, and subsidised items. They also should understand that SL should generate the revenue to meet the expenditure, have a sound GDP, low inflation & interest, to provide quality life to its people.

It’s the duty of citizens to pay the required tax on their earnings. Every citizen should know and understand that SriLanka does not engage in smuggling for revenue generation, but governance.

Before we address the export earnings, it is considered advisable to address the internal tax systems.

Politicians should not consider that such rigid and sustainable tax system will compromise their victory to parliament.

By Paneetha Ameresekere Courtesy The Ceylon Today

An article by the Asian Human Rights Commission

The Government has announced another attempt at constitution making in Sri Lanka which, this time is to begin, with the hope to complete the process, by the end of this year. A resolution to this effect has already been introduced in the Parliament and a Drafting Committee has been named. A valid question that begets asking is; what, does a constitution making in Sri Lanka imply?

Some reflections of the alleged brutal murder in Embilipitiya, may provide some answers to this very important question about the purpose and direction of constitution making in Sri Lanka.

The broad details of the incident as described in many reports, including many photographs and videos is quite simple. A party, was being held, at a residence in the Embilipitiya town and many people were attending this private celebration. During this party, two un-invited guests – who were two policemen – arrived at the house to the surprise of all guests and the residents. They were there not for any particular police duty, but to ask for Arrack (a local liquor), for their own consumption. As this request was not heeded to by the owners and residents there began a quarrel which quickly turned aggressive. The two policemen had beaten up several people at the house, in particular a young man, Sumith Prasanna Jayawardana who was the owner of the house. The policemen had then called their colleagues at the local police station as reinforcements, and soon thereafter a large group of policemen had also arrived and they had severely beaten the people attending the party, including women. The people who were at the event, have later spoken to the media including London based Sinhala BBC service, and had given accounts of the cruel manner in which they were treated by the officers attached to the Embilipitiya police. As a result of the police beating, Sumith Prasanna Jayawardana, a young man, was killed. This naturally provoked reaction from the people of Embilipitiya, who in large numbers began to gather and also put up black flags in protest of the police action. They also signed a petition, addressed to the Government to complain about this action. Meanwhile, police sought the intervention of the Magistrate in the area, and later served the pregnant widow, of the deceased young man with a notice ordering her to ensure that there will be no protest against the police and in particular forbidding anyone to carry a coffin, while demonstrating. As the tensions were building large numbers of police were called to the streets including, as reports stated, around 500 STF personnel (Special Task Force), in order to prevent a mass protest by the people.

This incident is the thus far the first killing to take place, due to police brutality in 2016. Going by the experiences of the previous years, this will certainly not be the last.

A Constitution is the first law or the paramount law of a country, that lays down the rules that the government, all its institutions and the people should abide by, if they are to achieve the great goals that the nation has set out to achieve, such as development, prosperity, peace and harmony and orderly behaviour in every aspect of the nation’s life. The simple question that would arise is ask then, as to whether it would be possible for the new constitution, to provide for a legal arrangement within which, the police in Sri Lanka will cease to act brutally. Or will it be the case that even after promulgation of the new constitution, the police will be allowed to act as brutally as they do now. If later be the case, then the people, particularly the people of lower income groups in the country will inevitably question, what good will such a constitution bring about to the people and the nation. Will this constitution making be another failed attempt as the two previous constitution makings were?

In no country is the maintenance of law and order possible, if the law enforcement agency of the country, the police itself, does not abide by the law. The Embilipitiya incident and many other similar incidents, only indicate that the Sri Lankan police do not consider it their duty, to abide by the law. A commonly held belief seems to be, that the police can break any law and get away with it.

The Embilipitiya incident confirms this perception. Despite of a brutal murder taking place, about which there is a large body of evidence, eye witnesses, photographs, videos and the like, the murders have not yet been arrested. They have only been transferred.

Looking at the scale of indiscipline in the Sri Lanka police, it can be assertedwithout hesitation, that the police hierarchy and even they Government fears to take action against the police. The fear is that the police will retaliate and withdraw cooperation, which in turn will create even more problems for the Government to tackle.

What use would any constitution be, if this situation is allowed to be continued? Thus a test for the effectiveness of any new constitution,that promises to restore the rule of law and good governance, is that it will develop constitutional strategies, to create a law abiding police force. Given the conditions in Sri Lanka, this will not prove to be an easy task. To bring about such effective reforms would require considerable discussionwith the people about what has become of their police force, quite openly and frankly. If that cannot happen, Sri Lanka will continue to be a place of disorder, which is caused mainly by its main law enforcement agency.

The President and the Prime Minister and even some ministers have spoken eloquently about the making of the new constitution and how it will make Sri Lanka a prosperous country. If they are serious about what they are talking, they should look into the state of policing in Sri Lanka and place before the people a perspective, as to how a policing that has turned wild, could be tamed and will become an instrument that generates an environment where law enforcement will become a civilised practice. An uncivilised policing and a good constitution are incompatible. One would hope that the President and the Prime Minister will demonstrate their wisdom and capacity to deal with this difficult problem.

It was not so long ago that the National Police Commission and the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL) forthright, condemned the police attack on the NDTA Students. The HRCSL, also imposed fines on the culprits. However, that does not seem to have awakened the Inspector General of Police, to take firm action to restore discipline. Instead, the Police Headquarters have moved the Courts, to challenge the action of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka. The internal disciplinary process of the police has broken down to these extents.

The Constitution Drafting Committee, when it starts its work therefore, should seriously ponder on these questions. If they cannot find a way to create a law abiding police force, their efforts towards making a new constitution will not bring any good tidings to Sri Lanka.

Drafting of a constitution, is not a matter of engaging in some paperwork. A nice constitution can be written by anyone, who has an access the text of other good constitutions in other countries. A really good drafting process of a constitutions involves dealing with threats to liberty and equality that the people are faced with and deliberating solutions that should be incorporated into the law so as to overcome these issues. Thus the drafters must address the socio political situation of the country and be ‘clear-headed’ about how to bring an enlightened approach to discipline within the government and amongst the people. If there is indiscipline in the government apparatus, the discipline among the people can be only brought about by repression. Then, what is required is not a constitution, but draconian national security laws. The period of rule under the last two constitutions (1972 and 1978) was a one that was carried out through such draconian national security laws. Naturally, Sri Lanka does not need a third one, to achieve the same purpose.

At the heart of constitution making should be the idea of people security, as against the narrow idea of national security. It is the people’s security that is being threatened by actions such as the one that took place in Embilipitiya. People’s security is also being threatened at almost every police station, every day, when the police brutally assault people under the guise of conducting criminal investigations.

What has failed in Sri Lanka, is the ‘law enforcement’ within the democratic and rule of law framework. This failure cannot be cured by adding another paper law, even if one calls it a constitution. There has to be an intellectual attempt to grasp the violence that is perpetrated on the people through the very apparatus of the Government. Having understood the causes of such violence, it is up to the Constituent Assembly to debate the ways by which such violence could be brought to an end. The task of the Drafting Committee should be to help bring about such a debate, so that through a genuine discussion on actual problems, solutions can be found which could be incorporated into the new constitution.

 LNW SPY January 8, 2016

By Professor Shelton Gunaratne, Ph.D.

(The writer is a former reporter of the Ceylon Daily News who completed his graduate studies in Oregon and Minnesota following the completion of a one-year World Press Institute Fellowship in the United States in 1966-67. He is the author of several books, including Mindful Journalism and News Ethics in the Digital Era: A Buddhist Approach edited with M. Pearson and S. Senarath and published by Routledge in 2015.)

The newspapers have a tremendous impact on a community depending on its literacy, educational level and wealth. Their impact, however, can vary from person to person and from place to place.  Although scholars predict the demise of the newspaper in its current format and mode of delivery in the advanced world before the middle of the current century, they are unlikely to disappear in the developing world where they serve as a social good rather than a commodity.

Because living is coterminous with communication, news will disappear only when life disappears. Communication began long before the emergence of humans when the convergence of the five aggregates made life possible. In this context, no one can claim to be a communication specialist. Mass communication is only a small part of communication. Because of the holistic nature of communication, it is impossible to study the impact of any source, message or channel on any group or entity on a lasting basis.

Therefore, I did the current study of a single newspaper only for heuristic purposes, not to assess its impact on the audience or the reasons for its current popularity among its readers.

The Sunday Times, the English-language flagship of the Wijeya Group that dominates the weekend English   newspapers, has an estimated circulation of 325,000, an impressive figure for a country with a low English literacy rate. Started in 1923 as the sister newspaper of the daily Times of Ceylon, it lagged behind the Sunday Observer until it was re-launched in 1987 by the Wijeya Group by imitating the design principles of USA Today.  From 1990, under the editorship of Sinha Ratnatunga, a great grand nephew of Anagarika Dharmapala, the newspaper has become a nationalistic organ that has consistently blamed India for destabilizing Sri Lanka through its Tamil connections and the putative International Community.

and now appears to be spreading in the sub-continent.”   Quoting the Kerala-based magazine The Week’s revelation that Indians from Tamil Nadu, egged on by the notorious outlaw Veerappan were actively engaged in fighting the Sri Lankan security forces alongside the LTTE, the ST editorial said, The Vajpayee government appears to be pussy-footing when it comes to dealing with the LTTE because it does not want to rub

the Tamil Nadu electorate on the wrong side in what it fears would seem an anti-Tamil exercise.”

මහාචාර්ය පුංචිනිලමේ මිගස්වත්තේ

“අනාගතයේදී මුහුදු සේද මාවත පාලනය කරන්නන් විසින් මුලු ලෝකයම පාලනය කරනු ඇත” අන්තර්ජාතික භූදේශපාලනය පිලිබඳ තුලනාත්මක විවරණයක්.

https://www.facebook.com/1911473452411740/videos/vb.1911473452411740/1911652605727158/?type=3&permPage=1

Ranjit Weerasinghe Toronto Courtesy The Island

I read with interest, the series of articles written by former Consul-General of Toronto, Bandula Jayasekara, regarding the L.T.T.E. activity in Canada during the war in Sri Lanka. He, quite rightly commended the invaluable contribution made by SLUNA and a few Sri Lankans domiciled in Canada who provided leadership to it. It’s never too late to appreciate and pay tribute to them, who boldly fought against all odds, to defend Sri Lanka against the formidable propaganda machinery of the diaspora in Canada. SLUNA was no match numerically, politically or financially for the diaspora which commanded massive resources of every type. Yet SLUNA fought valiantly.

I wish to single out one individual who, according to most Sri Lankans in Toronto, was the real live wire behind the resistance movement among that illustrious group of Sri Lankans.

He had been in Canada for some forty years. He was the man who, using his innate leadership skills and indefatigable energy, initiated the movement in the mid eighties to clear the badly tarnished name of Sri Lanka. With his untiring support and guidance the Sri Lanka United National Association of Canada was established. For the past twenty years or so, I was witness to the heroic struggle he sometimes single –handedly conducted to defend the Sri Lankan cause. Lal, one of my friends in Toronto referred to him as the “one man battalion fighting for Sri Lanka”. He was neither scared, nor deterred by various threats, including a law suit brought against him.

But, please don’t get me wrong. He was never against the Tamils nor their rightful place in unitary Sri Lanka. I learnt that, as a young Socialist in Sri Lanka, he joined the ranks of N.M and Colvin and championed the concept of “One Nation, two languages”, as against “One Language two Nations”. He treats every Tamil as his friend.

Now living in retirement, this wonderful son of Sri Lanka deserves the admiration of every Sri Lankan. Daya Hettiarachchi is his name.

Ranjit Weerasinghe Toronto

By Daya Gamage – Asian Tribune Political Note from U.S.

Washington, D.C. 11 January (Asiantribune.com):

President of Sri Lanka Maitripala Sirisena addressing the parliamentary on January 9 session that moved a resolution to transform the legislature into a constitutional assembly to draft a new constitution declared that there was no foreign influence in formulating the new constitution.

President Sirisena with Secretary Kerry in Colombo

http://www.asiantribune.com/node/88428

The president was allying a fear of foreign interference in the domestic affairs of the country at a time senior American officials have gone on record advocating serious devolution of administrative and economic power to the North-East Provinces through a federal constitution. The American officials for some time have recognized the two regions as the ‘Homeland of the Tamil People’ and that they have a legitimate right to govern their territory and responsible for their destiny.

The Asian Tribune carried a lengthy report titled ‘Secessionist Tamil Diaspora’s debt to America: Federalism for Sri Lanka’ recording the promotion of a federal structure and acknowledging the north-east region as the ‘Tamil Homeland’ by a scores of American officials including the incumbent American envoy in Colombo Mr. Atul Keshap. It is in this atmosphere that Sri Lanka’s president addressing his country’s legislature dismiss the notion that his government was not under the spell of foreign powers.

Despite his denial of being subject to foreign influence in constitution-making, the president’s own statement in Sri Lanka’s legislature on January 9 gives an indication that the constitution-making trajectory is toward federalism. He told that the majority ethnic Sinhalese which constitute 74% in Sri Lanka opposed a federal system that would ensure greater political power for ethnic minority Tamils who constitute 11% of the total Sri Lankan population.

Statistics show that only 8.6% of ethnic Tamils out of the total population of the country are domiciled in the north-east region of the country. 54% of the 11% ethnic Tamils are domiciled outside the north-east region among majority ethnic Sinhalese in southern districts.

It is interesting the president noted that a federal system “would ensure greater political power for minority Tamils”, a policy position senior American officials in the State Department have taken since the defeat of the Tamil Tigers in 2009.

He further said “We need a constitution that suits the needs of the 21st century and makes sure that all communities live in harmony,” Sirisena told legislators, adding that he was ready to shed executive powers in favor of a strengthened parliament.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremasinghe addressing the parliament proposing a constitutional assembly observed that objections by the majority ethnic Sinhala community to power sharing deals with the minority ethnic Tamils early on led to terrorism and war, he added.

“I believe now, through our past bitter experiences, we must prepare ourselves for future challenges,” he said. The Asian Tribune report mentioned earlier which can be read in this web portal carried policy statements of senior American officials advocating power sharing.

– Asian Tribune –

By Rohana R. Wasala Courtesy The Island

Rushdie is a perfect master of his medium and his message. The two elements define and shape each other. Those who attack the work purely on religious grounds totally miss the point, for they trivialize the book’s meaning to the point of absurdity. The real importance of the novel lies elsewhere, that is, in its broader as well as more profound thematic engagement. This is not to say that Rushdie shows no interest in religious or truly spiritual values. But his attitude to traditional religious beliefs is that of a secular free thinker. His approach to Islam is historical. To him Nothing is sacred”. Rushdie believes, as he has stated in a number of discussions, that Islam is ‘the only great religion that was born within recorded history’. This means that the facts of its founder’s life and character are known; the ideologies, controversies, and the social conditions that existed at that time are also known, and these things are related to what is said in its holy book. Andrew Teverson (Salman Rushdie, Viva Books, New Delhi, 2010) sums up very briefly Rushdie’s position in this regard (implicit in the ‘visions’ and other relevant parts of The Satanic Verses):

The Verses returns the Qur’an to the historical conditions of its making, in order to show that it reflects a historically contingent set of ideological belief systems that ought to be open to critique as ideological systems. It is only by recognizing such historicity, in Rushdie’s view, that it will become possible for Islam ‘to move beyond tradition’ and ‘bring the core concepts of Islam into the modern age’. (p.157)

(The emphasis on ‘as’ in the above is by Teverson.) If properly understood  and acted on accordingly by those who ought to consider it with due attention, Rushdie’s view will prove a clarion call for world peace in the current global context.

The other major aspect of his message is less controversial, though equally political: The Satanic Verses may be read  ‘as a migrant’s view of the world’ in Rushdie’s own words. He writes: (as quoted in ‘Notes for Salman Rushdie: The Satanic Verses by Paul Brians, Washington State University, 2004.)

Standing at the centre of the novel is a group of characters most of whom are British Muslims, or not particularly religious persons of Muslim background, struggling with just the sort of great problems that have arisen to surround the book, problems of hybridization and ghettoization, of reconciling the old and the new……. The Satanic Verses celebrates hybridity, impurity, intermingling, the transformation that comes of new and unexpected combinations of human beings, cultures, ideas, politics, movies, songs. It rejoices in mongrelization and fears the absolutism of the Pure. Mélange, hotchpotch, a bit of this and a bit of that is how newness enters the world. It is the great possibility that mass migration gives the world, and I have tried to embrace it. The Satanic Verses is for change-by- fusion, change-by-conjoining. It is a love-song to our mongrel selves.

The Satanic Verses is a postmodernist work. It is characterized by critical self-reference: The laughter is directed at the author himself sometimes; some characters may be authorial self-projections to some extent; the migrant community are not depicted as saints to the racist devils that some indigenous British (of the Thatcherite era) are made out to be. The novel is postmodernist in an ideological sense, too, for it represents a reappraisal of modern assumptions about identity, language and religion.

Another most striking feature of The Satanic Verses is its intertextuality. The numerous echoes of and allusions to the wide range of literary and other texts that the author is familiar with (as in T.S. Eliot’s poem The Waste Land about ‘the immense panorama of futility and anarchy’ that was contemporary history in his eyes) richly contribute to the expressive power of its prose. Rushdie’s description of his novel as ‘a love-song to our mongrel selves’ itself (where ‘mongrel’ means ‘of mixed descent’) is an allusion to Eliot’s The love song of J. Alfred Prufrock, which, I think, is thematically significant: For, at one level, the novel may be interpreted as an Odyssey of self-discovery that the Prufrockian character, the sycophantic Indian immigrant Saladin Chamcha, is made to undertake.  He, at the beginning, unconditionally sucks up to the British despite their barefaced racist prejudice against him, but, in the end, he returns to his father, no matter in the final days of the old man’s life, and resumes his affair with his former Indian sweetheart Zeeny Vakil.

In addition to being postmodernist and intertextual, The Satanic Verses is multicultural, for the narrative involves a multiplicity of cultures, religions, languages, and ethnicities. Rushdie’s general multiculturalism lends his works a special appeal. This is the case for Sri Lankans of all ethnicities and cultural backgrounds. The Satanic Verses is conspicuous in this quality. Its text makes frequent use of Hindi, Urdu, and Arabic words and phrases, echoes names of Bollywood stars, film songs, etc, mentions Indian foods, and so on. Gibreel Farishta may have been modeled on the South Indian actor Rama Rao, or the legendary Bollywood actors Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar or Amitabh Bacchan, etc; but Gibreel Farishta has much of the last mentioned actor in him. Amitabh, in fact, had been Bollywood’s biggest star for over 15 years by 1988, the year the book was published. Reading about Gibreel Farishta (lit. Gibreel Angel) falling from the sky when the plane blows up, few Sri Lankans of my generation (the same as that of Rushdie) would fail to remember the song ‘Aasman se aaya farishta’ (An angel has descended from the sky) from a scene in Indian film director Shakti Samantha’s 1967 Hindi movie An Evening in Paris’ (Paris Ki Ek Shyam) where a helicopter-borne Shammi Kapoor, swinging by a rope from its landing skid, hovering above, serenades a seductive water-skiing Sharmila Tagore!

Examples of Rushdie’s mastery of his medium occur on every page. I opened my Kindle version of the book at random and found the following (It’s a description of Gibreel Farishta transmogrifying himself- like the above mentioned Rama Rao – in a film studio for playing different deity roles):

……Gibreel had spent the greater part of his unique career incarnating, with absolute conviction, the countless deities of the subcontinent in the popular genre movies known as ‘theologicals’. It was part of the magic of his persona that he succeeded in crossing religious boundaries without giving offence. Blue-skinned as Krishna he danced, flute in hand, amongst the beauteous gopis and their udder-heavy cows; with upturned palms, serene, he meditated (as Gautama) upon humanity’s suffering beneath a studio-rickety bodhi tree. On those infrequent occasions when he descended from the heavens he never went too far, playing, for example, both the Grand Mughal and his famously wily minister in the classic Akbar and Birbal. For over a decade and a half he had represented, to hundreds of millions of believers in that country in which, to this day, the human population outnumbers the divine by less than three to one, the most acceptable, and instantly recognizable, face of the Supreme. For many of his fans, the boundary separating the performer and his roles had long ago ceased to exist.

Rushdie’s writing here has the characteristic fluidity and quickness of verbal delivery in the speech of the typical Indian-language speaker, something that reminds us of Raja Rao’s words in the Foreword to his 1937 novel Kanthapura: We, in India, think quickly, we talk quickly, and when we move we move quickly”. Rao also wanted to fashion, out of the ‘alien’ English language, an idiom that suited the ‘emotional make-up’ of the Indian indigene. Rao’s Indian admirers tell us that the language of his novel embodies the spirit of traditional Indian folk-epics, the puranas. That must be true. But we can also see in his writing signs of his familiarity with the English language and its literature, including evidence of the influence of the English Bible (such as the repetition of words and ideas, avoidance of the literary in favour of the familiar and simple in vocabulary, etc) on the style of his writing. Rushdie too draws upon both sources for the same advantages. But whereas Rao, perhaps typical of his time, was intent on laying the foundation for an Indian style of writing in English, Rushdie exemplifies the most widely prevalent ‘Globish’ variety of the language we find today, enriching it with linguistic and cultural elements from the repertoire of his own unique lived experiences, and this suits the globally vital themes he deals with, that transcend narrow national boundaries.

Incidentally, though they are separated from each other by at least five decades, the two novels have a number of similarities. Both are landmarks in the history of Indian/South Asian fictional writing in English. (Rushdie is actually British; he is a migrant, like those in the novel. He arrived in Britain in 1961 for his schooling, at the of 14, and has been domiciled there since,  except for a brief period in Pakistan in 1968. The catchment area of his creative reservoir, as it were, is his memory of his childhood in Bombay (today called Mumbai) and his (not altogether pleasant) experience as an immigrant British citizen of Indian origin, which justifies his categorization as an Indian or South Asian writer in English.) In the sense of the protagonists being cast in the roles of strugglers against or victims of racist oppression/discrimination, the novels articulate ‘patriotic’ themes (though the adjective ‘patriotic’ runs the risk of sounding pejorative when applied to a writer like Rushdie). In The Satanic Verses, Rushdie exposes the slavish mindset of some immigrants that include some Black Africans, just as much as he critiques the racism of the British host community.

Raja Rao, in his Kanthapura, describes how the inhabitants of the typical South Indian village of Kanthapura, belonging to diverse castes and living in their own separate quarters, nevertheless unite under the leadership of the inspired young Gandhian Moorthy, who has left his college studies for the pursuit of his patriotic cause, to struggle against the British. Raja Rao was only twenty- six when he wrote that novel. Naturally, he seems to have invested Moorthy, the central character, with his own youthful enthusiasm in the same national cause in his real life. Just as, in Moorthy, we may detect a self-projection of the author in Kanthapura, we can see a shadow of Rushdie himself in the form of Saladin Chamcha in The Satanic Verses.

Like Rushdie, Rao was a socially engaged writer. The fabric of his story can be said to have three strands: political, religious, and social which receive the same emphasis, like the Gandhian movement itself that fired the patriotic resolve of the villagers of Kanthapura. This village, in the story, is actually a microcosm of India. The same thematic threads are in evidence in The Satanic Verses, but these are more inextricably interwoven than in the other.

Concluded

Media Release Monday, 11 January 2016 Citizens Electoral Council of Australia

The Saudi Arabian dictatorship that on 1 January executed 47 people, a number of them by beheading, is a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council—thanks to the British government. Among those executed by the extreme Sunni Wahhabi regime were four Shiite Muslims, including the revered cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. These executions have enraged Shiite Muslims across the Middle East, and—predictably—threaten to unleash an endless sectarian bloodbath across the region.

The beheadings have been compared to those carried out so notoriously by ISIS. The similarity is no accident: ISIS was largely created by the Saudis upon the same Wahhabi fanaticism upon which the House of Saud itself was constructed, and which the Saudis have for decades exported around the world.

In 2013, the British government of Prime Minister David Cameron secretly swapped votes with Saudi Arabia to get both nations elected to the UN Human Rights Council—reportedly one of the most influential UN bodies. Amidst the global outcry following the mass-execution, Cameron’s government was conspicuous for its silence, expressing only a generic opposition to the death penalty.

Saudi Arabia’s latest display of brutality demands a full accounting of Britain’s so-called special relationship” with the Saudi regime, which relation gives a cover to that regime’s brutality, and allows it to continue its central role in financing international terrorism. In a 25 November 2015 media release, Prince Charles and Saudi-backed terrorism: Demand answers!”, the Citizens Electoral Council exposed that the core of this relationship is the close business and personal links between the British and Saudi monarchies, in particular between Prince Charles and the precise Saudi royals who have been repeatedly named as sponsors of terrorism such as Prince Bandar bin Sultan and Prince Turki bin Faisal. For instance:

• Prince Charles is the chief arms trader to the Saudis, having taken over management of the notorious al-Yamamah oil-for-arms deal in the early 1990s. That deal, in which the Saudis provided up to 600,000 barrels per day of oil, in return for arms from the British Ministry of Defence and Britain’s largest arms company, BAE Systems, continues to this day. Already several years ago the deal had created an off the books” slush fund, estimated at over $100 billion and implicated in financing al-Qaeda and ISIS. Besides numerous informal visits, Charles has made a dozen official state visits to Saudi Arabia, a key focus of which has been to broker arms sales. Al-Yamamah is Britain’s largest-ever export agreement; in 2006 Tony Blair shut down a Special Fraud Office investigation into the al-Yamamah deal, and British police officials report that they have been unable to pursue the Saudi sponsorship of terrorism due to Prince Charles. Prince Bandar, Saudi Ambassador to Washington in 1983-2005, Secretary General of the Saudi National Security Council from 2005 until last year and head of Saudi Intelligence in 2012-14, and his brother-in-law Prince Turki bin Faisal, who was director of Saudi General Intelligence in 1979-2001 and resigned only ten days before 9/11, are both named in the suppressed 28 pages of the official US Congressional report into 9/11 that deal with the financing of that attack. Reflecting the closeness of their relationship, Prince Charles invited Saudi Princes Bandar and Turki to his 2005 wedding to Camilla, two of only eight foreign royals invited to that intimate event. American intelligence sources report that the devoted Anglophile Bandar was recruited to the British Secret Intelligence Service during his education at the elite Cranwell Royal Air Force College, which Charles also attended.
• Prince Charles is the patron of the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies (OCIS), whose former and current board members constitute a Who’s Who of orchestrators of international terrorism. They include: Princes Bandar and Turki; Abdullah Omar Naseef, who co-founded OCIS and chairs its Board of Trustees, and who co-created Maktab al-Khidamat, the mujahedin organisation which in 1989 changed its name to al-Qaeda; Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and apologist for Hitler; and the bin Laden family, whose generous contributions to the centre earned them a chair named in honour of Osama bin Laden’s father.

The support for the Saudis by the Royal family and successive British governments since at least the reign of Tony Blair, has had a two-fold disastrous result:

1. It has unleashed the present mayhem in the Middle East, including the spiralling religious war; and
2. It has allowed a massive expansion of international terrorism through the growth of al-Qaeda and now ISIS, with Western Europe, the USA, Australia and the UK itself now subject to or under threat of imminent attack.

On the first point, the threat of a decades-long bloody religious war to engulf all of the Middle East and Southwest Asia, no British influential can claim that they didn’t know”. For instance, in a 13 July 2014 column in The Independent entitled Iraq crisis: How Saudi Arabia helped ISIS take over the north of the country”, British journalist Patrick Cockburn wrote:

How far is Saudi Arabia complicit in the Isis takeover of much of northern Iraq, and is it stoking an escalating Sunni-Shia conflict across the Islamic world? Some time before 9/11, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, once the powerful Saudi ambassador in Washington and head of Saudi intelligence until a few months ago, had a revealing and ominous conversation with the head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove. Prince Bandar told him: ‘The time is not far off in the Middle East, Richard, when it will be literally God help the Shia”. More than a billion Sunnis have simply had enough of them.’ …

There is no doubt about the accuracy of the quote by Prince Bandar, secretary-general of the Saudi National Security Council from 2005 and head of General Intelligence between 2012 and 2014, the crucial two years when al-Qa’ida-type jihadis took over the Sunni-armed opposition in Iraq and Syria. Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute last week, Dearlove, who headed MI6 from 1999 to 2004, emphasised the significance of Prince Bandar’s words, saying that they constituted ‘a chilling comment that I remember very well indeed’.”

Regarding the second point, the massive expansion of the terror threat to the West, including the UK itself, this, also, is British Crown policy. It is merely an expanded version of the gang-countergang” policy the British Establishment orchestrated during the Troubles in Northern Ireland, for the purpose of population control, just as Brig. Gen. Frank Kitson, the author of the 30 January 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre of 26 unarmed civilians, had employed them in colonial wars in Kenya, Malaya, the Persian Gulf and Cyprus. Kitson was rewarded for his work in Northern Ireland by being made Commander in Chief of the UK Land Forces in 1982-85 and aide-de-camp to the Queen herself in 1983-85.

Now, however, the methods of colonial control” have come home. Given that the City of London-centred global financial system totters on the brink of a new explosion far worse than that of 2008, the only way the Crown and its minions can maintain their power is to consolidate fascist police states. International terrorism” is for the British Crown and Establishment what the Nazi orchestration of the Reichstag Fire in February 1933 was for Hitler’s seizure of power. Among other things, Saudi-backed international terrorism has provided the pretext for the Crown’s security agencies to acquire their ever-widening surveillance, detention, and shoot-to-kill powers, and to increasingly militarise the UK’s police forces, training and arming them for the use of lethal force.

Anyone who is serious about defeating the threat of terrorism must no longer turn a blind eye to the truth of the British-Saudi relationship. Call your MP and demand they raise this in parliament—in particular Charles’s relationships with the Saudis. Moreover, they must support the passage of Glass-Steagall legislation to break up the power of the City of London and Wall Street. You better get them—before they get you.

Click here for a free dossier compiled from Executive Intelligence Review reports documenting the roots of modern Islamist” terrorism: ISIS, 9/11, and the Anglo-American/Saudi Terror Nexus.

Click here to join the CEC as a member.

Click here to refer others to receive regular email updates from the Citizens Electoral Council of Australia.

Courtesy The Daily Mirror

An unidentified investor has promised to park $1 billion in dollar deposits in Sri Lanka to help the island nation defend its currency, the finance minister told Reuters, in an unusual move that highlights the country’s precarious finances

Finance Minister Ravi Karunanayake declined to reveal the identity of the investor. But he said the investor was Belgian and was working with a Sri Lankan partner.

The investor has promised to transfer the money in two equal tranches from banks in Brussels and Luxembourg, the minister said.

“Instead of going for bonds and other borrowing, we are permitting it to take place,” Karunanayake said.

“This is better than negative returns in Europe”, for investors, he said.

The deposits, which pay an interest rate of 2 percent, are part of the ministry’s plans to raise $3 billion to $4 billion to shore up reserves and defend the rupee, which has hovered around record lows since the central bank floated it on Sept. 4.

Sri Lanka has run up a large budget deficit, forcing the government to borrow heavily and putting pressure on the rupee.

It is now also battling a growing balance-of-payments crisis.

Remittances from expatriate workers, worth about $5.8 billion in the first 10 months of last year, are expected to dry up because of the political turmoil in the Middle East.

Foreign reserves, which stood at $7.3 billion on Dec. 31, are under pressure as $5 billion is expected to be repaid on foreign loans in 2016, according to central bank data.

Financial experts said bringing in so much money from an individual investor was fraught with risks. Karunanayake has already liberalised dollar remittances from foreigners into the country. “This allows room for money-laundering. Black money could easily come through this,” said Sirimal Abeyratne, an economics professor at the University of Colombo. –

See more at: http://www.dailymirror.lk/102583/nd-sl-rupee-ravi#sthash.VUXXhzd3.dpuf

Jan 11 Sri Lankan shares fell for a sixth straight session, to mark their lowest close in 1-1/2 years, led by declines in diversified and banking stocks due to local and global concerns, brokers said.

Fears over investors shifting to risk-free assets such as government securities due to rising yields in government securities dented sentiment.

Analysts expect more investors to shift from risky assets to fixed assets with higher interest rates and shrinking of global investments in Sri Lanka.

Speaking at an economic forum in Sri Lanka Thursday, the 85-year-old drew similarities between the current economic environment and the financial crash of 2008.

When I look at the financial markets there is a serious challenge which reminds me of the crisis we had in 2008,” he said.

Unfortunately China has a major adjustment problem and it has a lot of choices and it can actually transfer to the rest of the world its own problems by devaluing its currency and that is what China is doing,” Soros said of the world’s second largest economy.

By Shamindra Ferdinando Courtesy The Island

Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka has urged President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickrem-esinghe to take punitive action against Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapakse, PC, whom the war veteran accuses of still serving the interests of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa.

Appearing on live Sirasa political programme ‘Satana’, Democratic Party leader alleged that the Justice Minister had been working for the Rajapaksas in spite of switching his allegiance to the UNP years back. Claiming that the Justice Minister had been engaged in a lucrative controversial enterprise and exploited his position to pursue business interests,FM Fonseka strongly condemned the Justice Minister for alleging that Maharaja Organization had sought to take over the operations previously carried out by the Avant Garde Maritime Services (AGMS). Instead of being grateful to Sirasa for facilitating Maithripala Sirisena’s victory at the presidential poll last January, Minister Rajapakse was seeking to score political points at the expense of the media, the former Democratic National Alliance (DNA) MP said.

https://youtu.be/1NB4BsPsGp8

Fonseka levelled a spate of allegations including one pertaining to the Justice Minister making an attempt to deceive the public regarding campaign funds received by the former Army Chief during the 2010 presidential polls.

Justice Minister Rajapakse joined ‘Satana’ over the phone towards the end of the programme to castigate the former Chief of Defence Staff. Rajapakse alleged that Fonseka had been angry with him for not facilitating the release of funds amounting to Rs. 88.8 mn seized from a bank vault belonging to the mother of Fonseka’s former son-in-law, Dhanuna Tillekeratne. The Justice Minister alleged that the money had been accumulated through illegal means during Fonseka’s tenure as the Army Chief. Rajapakse said that such funds couldn’t be released to appease Fonseka.

Justice Minister reiterated that his refusal to comply with Fonseka’s demand to arrest former Defence Secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, too, had contributed to the situation. Responding to allegations pertaining to his involvement in private enterprise, Rajapakse said members of parliament as well as ministers were not barred from acquiring shares of private enterprises.

The Justice Minister expressed disappointment that the media had given Fonseka an opportunity to make unsubstantiated allegations.

At the onset of the programme, Fonseka alleged that Rajapakse had been a close associate of AGMS proprietor retired Maj. Nissanka Senadhipathi, whom the DP leader described as one of those who had immensely benefited from the Rajapaksas over the years. Fonseka alleged that Rajapakse had maintained his relationship with Senadhipathi even leaving the UPFA/SLFP at an early stage of Rajapaksa’s first term.

The Sinha Regiment veteran said that the funds recovered from the vault belonging to Danuna’s mother was part of the funds received from well-wishers in support of his presidential candidature in 2010. The minister had deprived him of an opportunity to recover the money.

Fonseka claimed that the Justice Minister had influenced the Attorney General’s Department in a bid to save the Rajapaksas. The Justice Minister had asserted that Gotabhaya Rajapaksa couldn’t be arrested under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA) whereas he in spite of being the former Commander of the war winning Army had been subjected to the same law, Fonseka said.

The DP leader and Justice Minister had traded accusations regarding funds belonging to Danuna Tillekeratne held by the state. Fonseka placed the amount in question at Rs. 8 mn whereas Rajapakse placed the sum at Rs. 16 mn.

Fonseka alleged that Rajapakse had been continuously working against him and his party. The retired army commander alleged that the Justice Minister also worked against their efforts to regain rebel MP Jayantha Ketagoda’s seat.

Courtesy The Nation

Former Deputy Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka W A Wijewardena last week warned that Sri Lanka’s situation of the external debt was ‘critical’ and the island is now heading for a foreign exchange crisis coupled by the deceleration of the economic growth. Addressing the Sri Lanka Economic Forum 2016, the veteran banker said that although the government would find it difficult to pay its foreign (external) debt due to the lack of foreign exchange reserves, paying off its domestic debt would not be a problem as it still had the space to print money.

In the past, we were fortunately having a high economic growth coming basically from the increases in the services sector and that particular bonus is no more there for us. And as a result, with the decline in the economic growth as well as the oncoming of the external sector crisis, I feel that we are heading towards a crisis situation today,” Wijewardena cautioned.

According to data released by the Central Bank recently, Sri Lanka must have US$4.7 billion to repay its foreign debt for the next 12 months and also pay interest on that, he said.

If we add the average import bill for the country for the next three months, it will come to about another US$ 4 billion. So when we add up the total is much more than the total foreign exchange reserves we have. Because of this reason, it will be an enormous task for the Minister of Finance to find money to first pay the debt and then for the country as a whole to find US Dollars to pay for our imports,” Wijewardena said.

BY CASSENDRA DOOLE AND RUWAN LAKNATH JAYAKODY Courtesy The Ceylon Today

The last rites of the man, who died during a clash between villagers and police in Embilipitiya, was held at the Nawa Nagara cemetery, yesterday (10) afternoon.
The youth, who was reportedly injured after jumping from an upper floor of a house during the incident, succumbed to his injuries last Thursday (07).
The death had triggered a hartal and protests in the Embilipitya Town with some angry mobs setting fire to tyres on the road.
Four policemen and three civilians were hospitalized with injuries following the clash during a festivity at a residence on Nawa Nagara Road in Embilipitiya on 4 January.
It has been reported that two policemen had asked for liquor from the homeowners after the start of the house party and the ensuing argument between villagers and the police officers had escalated into fisticuffs.
Afterwards another group of police officers had arrived at the scene resulting in further clashes with attendees of the event and ending with several individuals from both groups being hospitalized.
Speaking to the media Police Media Spokesperson ASP Ruwan Gunasekera said that an ASP had received a phone call stating that there is a loud noise being reported from the party and that the neighbours were severely inconvenienced. The Embilipitiya Police was then informed to immediately report to the location and look into the matter.
ASP Gunasekara further added that four police officers responded to the report and that a group of individuals at the party had dragged the four police officers to the top floors of the buildings and assaulted them.However Police Media Spokesperson noted that an investigation will be conducted into the incident under the supervision of Ratnapura Superintendent of Police.
Meanwhile, 21 police officers of the Embilipitiya Police including its HQI have been transferred. Police Media Spokesperson, ASP Ruwan Gunasekara said that they were transferred on a temporary basis as an investigation into the death of the youth is underway.
The transfers have been made to the Seethawaka and Kegalle Police Divisions.
Media Spokesman of the Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka (HRCSL), Human Rights Commissioner Saliya Pieris said that a team of the HRCSL had visited the area and the scene, taken down statements from the Police and were presently engaged in conducting further inquiries.
“Once the preliminary report is prepared and comes out, we will decide what to do,” he added.

patriot

The Suddas & Never-to-Trust Indians are laughing at our Yahapalana Kalu Suddas!

• Where in the world have you heard of inviting war criminal Blair as State VVIP Guest? Only in Sri Lanka.
• Where in the world have you heard of leaders asking global crooks to create the economic blueprint for Sri Lanka? Only in Sri Lanka.
• Which country goes sucking behind the very nation that dropped the atomic bomb killing millions in Japan, the nation that has no shame to militarily intervene by ordering its Christian NGOs to enter countries and pay money to promote lies and then create regime change and plant puppet local leaders who will say ‘yes’ to everything? Right again, only Sri Lanka.
• Which country is mad enough to allow a meddling and interfering nation that created the LTTE to build a rail and road link to Sri Lanka when it takes no rocket science to realize that a 1.3billion population can soon land and take over a 20million island? Yep, only Sri Lanka.
• Which country is stupid enough to allow UN and envoys of foreign nation to inspect its national security establishments? Right again, Sri Lanka
• Which country is proud to allow all foreign and economic policy to be whetted for approval by another nation? Spot on, its Sri Lanka.
• Which country has leaders who are proud to say they have made friends with foreign nations when these friends are notorious for bringing down entire countries and their economies and making the people of these countries slaves to the World Bank/IMF debt systems? You are right again, it is our buffoon politicians.
• Which country has leaders who to appease the forces that sponsored them imprisons the nations war heroes and intelligence officers charging they are terrorists while releasing the terrorists in prison? Funny state of affairs, isn’t it….!
• Which country allows foreign funded NGOs and their local lackeys who worship the white masters to draft the country’s new constitution when the people did not even ask for such? Right again, its Sri Lanka
• Which country has a proud Democratic Government called Good Governance Government that happily enjoys taking anyone and everyone who opposes them to the bribery commission, PRECIFAC, FCID or simply locks them up in prison while they can FIND reasons for locking them up? Funny isn’t it, well it is happening in Sri Lanka and the world is just watching.
• Which country has a leader who does not know whether he is coming or going and every time something goes wrong his immediate response is I didn’t know” – its only in Sri Lanka.
• Which country has the misfortune to put up with a PM who was happy to divide the country to the LTTE in 2002, allowed the LTTE to openly humiliate the armed forces, who kept on saying the war was unwinnable, who has somehow managed with the help of his white financiers to repeat all that he could not do throughout 2002-2004 now in 2015! Yes its Sri Lanka.
• Which country has leaders daft enough to co-sponsor a UN Resolution that claims the war criminals are the armed forces and not the LTTE! Yes it happens only in Sri Lanka.
• Which country has citizens who are so selfish and only think of themselves and failed to connect the dots to realize that in January 2015 they fell prey to bogus propaganda (though the faults of the previous regime helped add fuel to the fire) without realizing that though the previous government did have faults it was still the LESSER EVIL….? Sri Lanka
• Which country watches while the yahapalana government makes ministers out of losing candidates that the people have rejected and brings in a corrupt former President and makes her head of Reconciliation bogey? Spot on…only in Sri Lanka.
• Which country has leaders who wish to eliminate the historical Buddhist identity of this country because the country’s that are funding them are those with an agenda to Christianize Sri Lanka to make into another South Korea? Yep, Sri Lanka.
• Which country has leaders are proud to give the West and India land to make profit while the citizens will steadily be thrown into poverty and debt? Right again, its Sri Lanka.
• Which country has a media that was wailing and screaming about freedom and rights under previous regime but under yahapalana that freedom has meant to write ONLY against the previous regime only? Its Sri Lanka’s media….none of them have written a word in protest of the threats to the national security, the wrongful arrests of the intelligence officers, the intrusions by West and India.

Anyone wondering what yahapalana leaders have achieved this past year, does not need to go very far – the proof is in the pudding.

We are going behind nations that have ruined innocent lives across South America, Middle East, Africa, Asia and are continuing to do so because all that these Western nations are interested in is PROFIT, PLUNDERING, PROMOTING THEIR RELIGION, DEGRADING CULTURES and totally ruining the history, historical identity, culture and indigenous systems of nations. To do this they invest in creating Christian missionaries, Christian NGOs, Funding local lackeys to be their mouthpieces, promoting stupid slogans like multiculturalism, multifaith so they can demean the indigenous systems and craftily bring their religions and cultures in par with the indigenous and then slowly uproot the indigenous by making the innocent people believe that their religion is more powerful and superior.

Inspite of these realities the People of Sri Lanka are ignorant enough to feel that they are blessed to have these very western conspiring nations to partner with yahapalana leaders without realizing that they are slowly planning the division and disintegration of Sri Lanka.

They are changing the constitution, the administrative systems, they are putting puppets into key roles as officials so that their wishes will be realized before the people start turning against yahapalana for ruining the country….by which time yahapalana leaders and their families would have all got green cards to live overseas!

In the meanwhile the Suddas and the Never-to-trust Indians are laughing at the yahapalana leaders and officials who are bending backwards to please the white/Indian masters while they are enjoying making every change possible to make Sri Lankan a Western/Indian colony to fulfil the aspirations of breaking up China’s & Russia and the nations linked to them.

චන්ද්‍ර අබේනායක

කඩිමුඩියේ විසඳුම් දීමට තුඩුදෙන ජාතිවාදයක් අප අතරෙහි ඇත්ද?

දශක තුනක් වැනි කාල වකවානුවක කොටින්ගේ කුරිරු මෙලෙච්චත්වය හරහා පෙන්නුම්කල විශේෂ උපක්ක්‍රමයක්  වූයේ සිංහල ජනයා උසිගන්වා ප්‍රතිවිරෝධ ජාතිවාදී කැරැල්ලක් ඇතිකර ඔවුන්ගේ බෙදුම්වාදී අරමුන  සාධාරණ කිරීම සඳහා රටතුල හා විශේෂයන් ජ්‍යාතියන්තර වශයෙන් ප්‍රචලිත කිරීමය. අනුරාධපුර ශ්‍රී මහාබොදිය වටා සිටි වන්දනාකරුවන් ඝාතනය කිරීම, අරන්තලාවෙහි භික්ෂූන් ඝාතනය කිරීම, ශ්‍රී දලදා මාලිගාවට බොම්බ ප්‍රහාරය වැනි සාහසීක ක්‍රියා එම අරමුණ හරහා ක්‍රියාත්මකවූ  සිද්ධීන් අතරෙන් ඉතාමත් මෙලෙච්ච සිද්ධීන්ය. මෙම සිද්ධීන් හේතුකොටගෙන කොටින් බලාපොරොත්තුවූ සාමන්‍ය දෙමල ජනයා  කෙරෙහි කිසිම ධ්වේශ සහගත ප්‍රතිවිරෝධතාවයක් සාමාන්‍ය ජනතාව අතරින්,විශේශයෙන් සිංහල ජනතාව අතරින් මතු නොවීම අරබයා පැහැදිලිවම පිලිඹිබු වන්නේ කොටි ත්‍රස්තවාදීන් දෙමල ජාතීන්ගේ එකම නියෝජිතයන් කියාසිටියත් ඔවුන් අනුගමනය කල කෘර ක්‍රියාවලිය සාමන්‍ය දෙමල ජනයා කිසිසේත් අනුමත නොකොරණ බවට  විස්වාසයක් තිබීම යයි යමෙකුට මතයක් දැරීමට ඉඩ ඇත. මානව හිමිකම් සහ සාමය උදෙසා පත්වී ප්‍රශ්ණ නිරාකරණය කිරීමට පෙනී සිටින ආයතන හා පුද්ගලයන් පිරිසක් ලංකා ආණ්ඩුව සහ එල්.ටී.ටී.ය අතර සිදුවූ ඝට්ටණය සිවිල් යුද්ධයක් මෙන් අර්තකතණය කර ඇත. එයින් මනාව පැහැදිලි වනුයේ ඔවුන් නිරතවී සිට්ටින්නේ, නැති ප්‍රශ්ණයකට පිලියම් සෙවීමේ වියාජ්‍ය අබ්‍යාසයක බව නොවේද?      1956 එස්. ඩබ්ලිව්.අර්.ඩී.බන්ඩාරනායක මහතාගේ මූලිකත්වයෙන් දියත්වු ජාතික බලවේගය නොරුස්සනු ලැබූ, ජනග්‍රහනයෙන් අතලොස්සක් වුවත් එතෙක් බලය ඔසවූ ප්‍රභූ පන්තිය හා ඔවුන්ට සහය දුන්නාවූ වෙනත් විදෙස් ගැති ජනකොටස් සහ ආයතන එම බලවේගයට අකුල්හෙලීමේ අරමුනෙන් ජාතිවාදය යොදා ගන්නා ලදී. කොටි ත්‍රස්ත වාදයට පෙර දෙමල ජනයා ඉල්ලක්ක කර විටින් විට ඇතිවූ ප්‍රචන්ඩ ක්‍රියා සහ ඝාතන එකී ප්‍රභූ ජනකොටස් ලෙහිසියෙන්ම ජාතිවාදයට ගොනුකලත් එම ක්‍රියා අති මහත් සිංහල ජනයා විසින් හෙලා දකිනු ලදී. එසේම දෙමල ජනයාගෙන් අතිමහත් බහුතරයක් කොටින්ගේ මෙලෙච්ච ක්‍රියාකාරිත්වය කිසිසේත් පිලිගන්නා නොමැති බවටද සැකයක් නැත. සිංහල,දෙමල, මුස්ලිම් සහ අනිකුත් ජනකොටස් අතර අන්යෝන්‍ය සංස්කෘතික ගතිලක්ෂණ එකිනාකට වෙනස් වීම ස්වභාවිකය. බටහිර ආක්‍රමනයන්ට පෙර ලංකා ඉතිහාසය හරහා පෙන්නුම්කරන්නේ සියලු ජන කොටස් තම තමන්ගේ අන්යෝන්‍යතාවය රැකගෙන ජීවත්වූ බව පමනක්නොව එසේ ජීවත්වීමෙන් එකිනෙකා අතර සංස්කෘතික හුවමාරූන්ද සිදුවී ඇති භවය. යතාර්ථය එසේ වෙතත්  සමහර පුත්ගලයන් සහ සංවිධාන නොදත් කමින් හෝ හිතුමතා තමන් යැපෙන රාජ්‍ය නොවන සංවිධාන සතුටු කිරීමට ඉදිරිපත්වී කරුණු විකෘති කරමින්  බටහිර කේන්ද්‍රගත, අපරටට නොගැලපෙණ මනස්කල්පිත සංකල්පයන් ගෙනහැර පාමින් නැති ප්‍රශ්ණ වලට විසඳුම් සොයන පිලිවෙතක් අනුගමණය කරමින් සිටීම කේදජනයකය. යම්කිසි  ජණ කොටසකට එම ජණ කොටසට අයත්වීම නිසාම අසාධරණයක් සිදුවී ඇත්ද? එදිනෙදා ජීවිතයේදී එවන් අවස්තා සිදුවී ඇත්නම් එය ගැණ පරීක්ෂාකොට විසඳුම් සෙවිය යුතුමය.

ත්‍රස්තවාදී පීඩනයෙන් රට නිදහස් කල රණවිරුවන් ජාතිවාදීන් නොවන්නේය. බෙදුම් වාදයක් හරහා එල්.ටී.ටී.ය සමග නොමගයමින් සටන් වැදුණු උතුරේ තරුණයන්ද ජාතිවාදීන් නොවන්නේය. ත්‍රස්තවාදය මැඩලීන්මෙන් අනතුරුව දකුනේ ජනයා ප්‍රීති ඝෝෂා කලහ. එසේම එල්.ටී.ටී.ග්‍රහණයට අසුවී දැඩි අසහනයෙන් නිදහස්වූ දෙමල ජනයා යම් හේතූන් නිසා එසේ ප්‍රීති ඝොෂා නොකලත් ඔවුන් ජාතිවාදින් නොවන්නේය.

බටහිර කුමන්ත්‍රණ කෙසේ වෙතත් ඔවුන්ගේ සමාජ විද්‍යාක්ඥයන් පවා අපගේ ප්‍රශ්ණ දෙස බලන්නේ ඔවුන්ගේම ඉතිහාසය හරහා යයි කිවහැකිය. යුරෝපයේ අඳුරු යුගයයි කියාගන්නා ඉතාමත් සාහසීක යුගයක් පසුකර, මුස්ලිම් වරුන්ට විරුද්ධව කුරුස යුද්ධය දියත් කර, පසුව ධනය කොල්ලෑකැමට ආයුද බලයෙන් ආසියාවට, අප්‍රිකාවට සහ දකුණු අමෙරිකාවට ගොඩවෙමින්, විශේෂයෙන් අප්‍රිකාවෙහි සමහර ජනකොටස් සමුලඝාතනවලට ලක්කරමින්, තවත් සමහරුන් විලංගු ලා වහල් වෙලඳාමට යොදා ගනිමින් ගෙනගිය උග්‍ර මෙලෙච්ච්ත්වය ඉතිහාසයෙන් මනාව දිස්වී පෙනෙණ සාදක වලින් ස්වල්පයකි. අප රටෙහි ප්‍රශ්න වලට මැදිහත් වන බොහෝ බටහිරයන්ගේ මනස සකස්වී ඇත්තේ යුරෝපය කෙන්ද්‍රගත යටත්විජිත ආශ්‍රිත වර්ගවාදී සහ වර්ණවාදී සංකල්පයන් ඔස්සේ යයි කිව හැක. ඔවුන්ගේ මතයන් තහවුරු කිරීම සඳහා යොදාගණු ලබන්නේ අප රටේම විද්වතුන් කියාගන්නා කොටසක් බවද පැහැදිලිය.

ඇතැම් කූට දේශපාලක්ඥයන් සමහර ජනකොටස් මුලා කර, නැති ආගම්වාදයන් සහ ජාතිවාදයන් මවාපාමින්ද ඇතිවිය හැකි සුලු සිද්ධීන් විශාල කර පෙන්වීමෙන්ද ක්‍රියා කරන ආකාරය ඉතා පැහැදිලිය. තවද ඔවුන් බලයට පත්වූ පසු ඔවුන් දියත් කල බොරු ප්‍රචාර තහවුරු කරගන්නාසේ නැති ප්‍රශ්ණ වලට විසඳුම් දිමේ ක්‍රියාවලියද බෙහෙවින් භයාණකය. කිසිම පසුබිමක් නැති මනස්කල්පිත, බටහිරෙන් ආනයන කල විසඳුම් අප රටට කිසිසේත් ඔබින්නේ නැති බව බලධාරීන් දැණගත යුතුය. හිර ගෙදර සිටින දරුණුම එල්.ටී.ටී. සමාජිකයා තෝරාගෙන ඔහු හෝ ඇය නිදහස් කරත් අපට ප්‍රශ්නයක් නැත. එසේම සෑම ජනකොටසකටම අයත් පුරවැසියාගේ අපෙක්ශාව වණු ඇත්තේ ජාතික ආරක්ෂාව බව විශේෂයෙන් කිවයුතු නැත.

උපුටා ගැන්ම දිවයින

නැවත පදිංචි කිරීම යන වාක්‍ය අපට මාධ්‍යයන් හරහා නිතර ඇසෙන්නකි. යුද්ධය නිසා ගම්බිම් හැර යන්නට සිදු වූයේ ද්‍රවිඩ මුස්‌ලිම් මිනිසුන්ට පමණක්‌ නොවේ. සිංහල ජනයාද රාශියකට සිය ගම්බිම් හැර දමා යන්නට සිදු විය. දෙමළ වැසියන් ගම්බිම් හැරදා ගියේ කොටි සහ හමුදාව අතර යුද්ධයට මැදිව සිටිය හොත් මරු මුවට පත් වන්නට ඉඩ ඇතැයි ඔවුන් සිතු බැවිනි.

නමුත් සිංහල සහ මුස්‌ලිම් වැසියන් ගම්බිම්වලින් පලා ගියේ ඔවුන්ගේ දෑස්‌ ඉදිරිපිටදී ඔවුන්ගේ සහෝදර වැසියන් ද්‍රවිඩ කොටි විසින් මරා දැමූ හෙයිනි. එදා සිංහලයන් පලා ගියේ ඇඳිවත පමණක්‌ ඉතිරිවූ දිළින්දන් වශයෙනි.

යුද්ධය නිසා පලාගිය දෙමළ වැසියන් කෙරෙහි දේශීය වශයෙන් මෙන්ම ජාත්‍යන්තර වශයෙන්ද අනුකම්පාව හිමි විය. ඔවුන් නැවත පදිංචි කරවන ලෙස ජාත්‍යන්තරයෙන් පවා රජයට දැඩි බලපෑම් එල්ල විය. යුද්ධයේදී විනාශ වූ ගෙවල් නිවාස වෙනුවට අලුතින් නිවෙස්‌ ඉදිකර ගන්නට විදේශ රටවල් පවා දෙමළ ජනයාට මුදලින් උපකාර කළහ.

නැවත පදිංචි කිරීමේ අමාත්‍යාංශයක්‌ පවා අලුතින් ඇති කරන ලදී. ඒ අනුව දෙමළ ජනයාට තමන් කලින් පදිංචිව සිටි ඉඩකඩම් නැවත ලැබුණු අතර ඔවුන්ට නව නිවාසද ලැබිණි.

ඉරක්‌කණ්‌ඩිය ගමේ ෙ€දවාචකය කියන්නට සිදුවන්නේ මේ පසුබිම මතය.

ඉරක්‌කණ්‌ඩිය යනු ත්‍රිකුණාමලය දිස්‌ත්‍රික්‌කයේ නිලාවේලියට ආසන්නයේම පිහිටි ගම්මානයකි. මෙම ගම්මානය ආරම්භ කරනු ලැබූයේ ලංකාවේ විවිධ පළාත් වලින් පැමිණි ගැමියන්ගේ මහන්සියෙනි. නවසිය ගණන් වල ඉරක්‌කණ්‌ඩිය යනු වනාන්තරයකි. ලංකාවේ විවිධ පළාත්වලින් පැමිණි සිංහල, ද්‍රවිඩ, මුස්‌ලිම් ජාතීන් තුනේම වැසියෝ එකතුවී ඉරක්‌කණ්‌ඩිය කැලෑව කපා කොටා පැල්පත් තනාගෙන එය වාසභූමි බවට පත්කර ගත්හ. වැදගත්ම කාරණය වූයේ මේ සිටින දෙමළ මුස්‌ලිම් වැසියන් එකම පවුලක්‌ සේ සාමයෙන් සමගියෙන් වාසය කිරීමය. එකිනෙකාගේ මරණයට මගුලට සහභාගි වන්නට වර්ගයා ගේ වෙනස ඔවුන් බාධාවක්‌ කර ගත්තේ නැත. සිංහලයා දෙමළ දැන සිටි අතර ද්‍රවිඩ මුස්‌ලිම්වරු සිංහල ඉගෙන ගත්හ.

සැබවින්ම ඉරක්‌කණ්‌ඩිය මිනිස්‌ පවුලක අසිරිමත් බව විදහා පාන ගම්මානයක්‌ සේ බැබළෙමින් තිබිණි. 50 දශකයේ මුල්භාගයේ ඇරඹුණු මේ ගම්මාන අසූව දශකයේa මුල් දක්‌වා පරම්පරා තුනක සිංහල දෙමළ මුස්‌ලිම් වැසියෝ සහජීවනයෙන් කල් ගෙවූ නිස්‌කලංක ගමක්‌ විය.

zzප්‍ර්‍රශ්නෙ පටන් ගත්තෙ 1985 දී. එතකොට යුද්දෙ පටන් අරං. සිංහල, දෙමළ නෑකම දුරස්‌ වෙන්න පටන් ගත්තා මං. වැඩිහිටි දෙමළ මිනිස්‌සු අපට වරදක්‌ කළේ නෑ. නමුත් දෙමළ තරුණයො අපි දිහා බැලුවෙ වෛර ඇහින්.

වින්නැහිය විස්‌තර කළේ ඩබ්. මර්සි ප්‍රනාන්දුය. ඇය උපන්නේත් ඉරක්‌කණ්‌ඩියෙහිමය. අවු 50. ක්‌ යනතුරු ජීවත් වූයේද ඒ ගමෙහිය.

රටේ යුද්ධය වැඩි වෙද්දී දෙමළ තරුණයො අපට තර්ජනය කරන්න පටන් ගත්තා. හිටපු ගමන් සිංහල පවුල්වල අය අතුරුදන් වෙන්න පටන් ගත්තා. එයාලගෙ මළ කඳන්වත් හමු වුණේ නෑ. ඒත් අපි ගමදාල ගියේ නෑ. ඒ වුණාට දෙමළ අය අපට කිව්ව ගමෙන් පිට වෙන්න කියල. නොගිය නම් මැරුම් කරන්න වෙන බව අපට තේරුම් ගියා. අපි නම්බුකාර විදියට සල්ලිය බාගෙ හරි හම්බ කරගෙන හිටිය මිනිස්‌සු. අපි ගමෙන් පිට වුණේ ඇඳන් හිටිය වස්‌තරේ පිටින්. ගෙදර තිබිච්ච ලුණු කැටයක්‌වත් අරන් යන්න අපට ඉඩ ලැබුණේ නෑ. අහුවෙච්ච වාහනවල එල්ලිල එහෙම නැත්නම් හැතැප්ම ගණන් පයින් ඇවිදගෙන අපි ගමෙන් පිට වුණේ මරණ බයට.

මෙසේ අසරණව ඉරක්‌කණ්‌ඩිය ගමෙන් පිටවූ සිංහල පවුල් සංඛ්‍යාව 67 කි. ඉනික්‌බිති කබලෙන් ලිපට වැටුණු සැටි සුසන්තිකා දේවිකා විස්‌තර කරන්නේ මෙලෙසයි.

zzමම එතකොට ළමයෙක්‌. මගේ අම්මයි තාත්තයි දෙන්නම කොටි මැරුව. අම්මගෙ මළ කඳවත් අපට දකින්න ලැබුණෙ නෑ. අපි ගමදාල ගිහින් ඈත පළාත්වල ඉන්න නෑදැයන්ගෙ ගෙවල්වල ජීවත් වුණේ. මගේ ළමා කාලය හරිම දුක්‌තයි. අපි තැන් තැන්වල ජීවත් වුණේ. මම වැඩිහිටියෙක්‌ වුණේ අනාථයෙක්‌ විදියටයි. ජීවත් වෙන්න අපි නොයෙක්‌ විදියේ රස්‌සාවක්‌ කළා. සුළු සුළු රැකියා කළේ. 2009 දී ඒ කියන්නෙ අවු( 24 කට පස්‌සෙ ආණ්‌ඩුවෙන් අපට ආපහු එන්න කිව්ව ගමේ පදිංචි වෙන්න. අපි හරිම සංතෝසෙන් අපේ උපන් ගමට ආපසු ආවෙ. ඒත් අපට සිද්ධ වුණේ කබලෙන් ලිපට නෙමෙයි. ලිපෙනුත් පහළට වැටෙන්නයි.ZZ

සිංහල වැසියන්ගේ ජීවිතවල බරපතළ ෙ€දවාචකය සිදු වන්නේ නැවත පදිංචියට ඔවුන් ආ පසුවයි. නැවත පදිංචි වූවන්ගේ සුබ සාධක සංගමයේ සභාපති එම්. ජී. ප්‍රියන්ත වර්තමාන තත්ත්වය පැහැදිලි කරන්නේ මෙලෙසයි.

2009 සැප්තැම්බර් වල ඉරක්‌කණ්‌aඩිය ගමට අපි ආවේ. අපි ආපහු ආවෙ හරිම සතුටකින්. සිංහල පවුල් ටික රට පුරා තැන් තැන්වල විසිරිල හිටියෙ. තැන් තැන්වල පොඩි රස්‌සා කරමින් ජීවිත ගැට ගහගෙන හිටියෙ. ඉතින් අපි අපේ ගම්වල නැවත පදිංචි කරනවයි කියල ආණ්‌ඩුව කිව්වහම අපිට ලොකු සතුටක්‌ දැනුණා.

ඉස්‌සෙල්ලාම අපි නැවතුනේ අපි ගියපු ඉගෙන ගත්තු සිංහල ඉස්‌කෝලෙ. ඉස්‌කෝලෙ බෝඩ් එක තිබුණේ නෑ. අපි අඟුරු කෑල්ලකින් සිංහල විද්‍යාලය කියල ලොකු අකුරින් ලිව්වා.

අපි එනකොට අපේ ඉඩම්වල දෙමළ මිනිස්‌සු පදිංචි වෙල ඉන්නව. නැවත පදිංචි කරන තුරු ඉන්න කියල ආණ්‌ඩුව අපිව තාවකාලික අනාථ කඳවුරකට දැම්මා. ඒවා ගෙවල් නෙමෙයි. ටකරන් මඩු. ඒව හදල දුන්නෙ සේවා ලංකා ආයතන විසින්.

ඉතින් අපි ආපහු අපි පදිංචි වෙලා හිටපු ඉඩම් ලැබෙන කං බලා හිටියා. ජීවත්වෙන්න ළඟ පාත හෝටල්වල අතුගාන වැඩ කළා. පිඟන් හේදුවා. ඒත් අපට ඉඩම් ලැබෙන වගක්‌වත් නැවත පදිංචි කරන පාටක්‌වත් පේන්න නෑ.

අපි කට්‌ටිය කොළඹ ගියා. ඉඩම් කොමසාරිස්‌තුමා හම්බු වෙන්න. ඉඩම් කොමසාරිස්‌තුමා කරුණු තේරුම් අරන් වහාම ලිත නියෝගයක්‌ කළා මේ මිනිස්‌සුන්ට ඉඩම් නිදහස්‌ කරන්න කියල. ඉඩම් නිදහස්‌ කිරීම කරන්න ඕන නිලාවෙලි ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම්වරයා. නමුත් ඔහු ඒක කළේ නෑ. අතුරුදන් වූවන්ගේ කොමිසම නිර්දේශ කළා මේ ඉඩම් නිදහස්‌ කරන්න කියල.

වෙනකක්‌ තියා 1989 ඔක්‌( 27 ගැසට්‌ පත්‍රයකින් ජනාධිපති ආර්. ප්‍රේමදාස මහත්තයා මෙලෙස ඉඩම් අන්සතු කළ නොහැකි බවට නියෝගයකුත් නිකුත් කරල තියෙනවා. එහෙම ගැසට්‌ නිවේදනයක්‌ තිsයෙද්දි අපේ ඉඩම් දෙමළ මිනිස්‌සුන්ට පැවරුවෙ කොහොමද?

සිංහල පවුල් 27 ක්‌ තවමත් ගමේ තම ඉඩම් දෙස බල බලා අනාථ කඳවුරු වල ජීවත්වේ. වඩාත් පැහැදිලිව කිවහොත් ඉරක්‌කණ්‌ඩිය සිංහල වැසියෝ උපන් බිමේ උපන් රටේ උපන් ගමේ අනාථයන් බවට පත්ව සිටී.

නැවත පදිංචි කිරීමේ අමාත්‍යාංශයක්‌ තිබේ. එහෙත් ඇමැති ස්‌වාමිනාදන් මහතා සිංහලයන්ගේ මේ ඉඩම් ප්‍රශ්නය දෙස තවමත් බලා නැත.

නැවත පදිංචි කිරීම යනු දෙමළ ජනයාට පමණක්‌ ඔවුන්ගේ ඉඩම් යළි පවරාදීමද? ඔවුන් හා සමානව යුද්ධය නිසා ගම්බිම් අතහැර පලා යන්නට සිදුවූ සිංහල ජනයාට ඒ සාධාරණය ඉටු නොවන්නේ ඇයි? සංහිඳියාව යනු මෙය දැයි අපට ප්‍රශ්න කරන්නට සිදුවේ.

මේ සිංහලයන්ගේ ප්‍රශ්නය අන්තිමට නතරවී ඇත්තේ නිලාවේලි ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම්වරයා ළඟය. මෙම ඉඩම් යළි ඉරක්‌කණ්‌ඩිය ගම්වැසියන්ටම පවරා දෙන ලෙස ඉඩම් කොමසාරිස්‌වරයාද ත්‍රිකුණාමල දිසාපතිවරයාද ඇතුළු කොමිෂන් සභා කිහිපයකින්ම නිර්දේශ කර තිබියදී නිලාවෙලි ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් නිහඬව සිටින්නේ ඇයි?

නිලාවෙලි ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් කාර්යාල ලේකම්වරු ඇතුළු අනෙකුත් සියලු නිලධාරීන් ද්‍රවිඩයන්ය. සිංහලයන්ට අයත් මේ අනාථ ප්‍රශ්නය දෙස ඔවුන් නොබලන්නේ ඒ නිසා දැයි ඉරක්‌කණ්‌ඩිය සිංහලයන් නගන ප්‍රශ්නය සාධාරණය. ප්‍රශ්නය සිංහලෙන් කතා කළ විට නිලාවෙලි ප්‍රාදේශීය ලේකම් ලේකම් කාර්යාලය අහක බලන්නේ ඇයි?

මෙය උපන් ගමේ අනාථයන් බවට පත්වූ පිරිසකගේ හද පාරවන ප්‍රශ්නයකි. සාමය සංහිඳියාව යන්න රජයේ ප්‍රමුඛ තලයේ තේමා පාඨයකි. එහෙත් එය ක්‍රියාත්මක වන්නේ එක්‌ ජාතියකට පමණක්‌ද?

බොදුබල සේනා, රාවණා බලය ආදී වශයෙන් සිංහල බෞද්ධයන්ගේ අයිතිවාසිකම් වෙනුවෙන් හඬ නගන්නෝ සිටිති. එහෙත් ඉරක්‌කණ්‌ඩිය ගමේ සිංහල වැසියන් 9 වසරක්‌ තිස්‌සේ තවමත් වෙසෙන්නේ තම උපන් ගමේම අනාථ කඳවුරකය. ඔවුන් වෙනුවෙන් කවුරු හෝ හඬ නැගිය යුතු නොවේද?

චන්ද්‍රසිරි දොඩන්ගොඩ
ඡායාරූප සමන් රණවීර

ලසන්ත වික්‍රමසිංහ යුතුකම සංවාද කවය

බුද්ධාගමට හිමි ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානය පොතෙන් එළියට, ඊලඟට ව්‍යවස්ථාවෙන්?

චන්ද්‍රිකා මහත්මිය සිටින්නේ පාසල් යන වයසක නොවේ. නමුත් ළඟදී චන්ද්‍රිකා මහත්මියට පාසල් පෙළ පොත් මතක් විය. අපටත් ඇතැම් විට කුඩා කළ බැලූ ඒ පොත පත කිසියම් අතීතාශ්වාදජක හැඟීමක් මුසුව මතකයට නැගෙන අවස්ථා ඇත. නමුත් චන්ද්‍රිකා මහත්මියට පාසල් පෙළ පොත් මතක් වූයේ එවැනි හැඟීමක් ඇතිව නොවේ. බටහිරයන් විසින් ඇයට පැවරූ ප්‍රධාන වගකීමක ආරම්භක පියවර තැබීමටය. ඇය ළඟදී පාසල් විෂය නිර්දේශයෙන් බුද්ධාගම පොත ඉවත් කර සියළු ආගම් ඇතුළත් සර්ව ආගමික පොතක් ළමුනට ලබා දිය යුතු බවට අදහස් පළ කළාය.

වරෙක ඇය තම පුතණුවන් සිංහලයකු වීම පිලිබඳ ඔහු අතිශයින් ලැජ්ජා වන වග තමා සමඟ පැවසු බව ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ පැවසුවාය. ඇයද තමා සිංහලයකු වීම පිලිබඳ ලැජ්ජා වන ස්ත්‍රියකි. නොඑසේ නම් සිය පුතා සිංහලයකු වීම පිලිබඳ ලැජ්ජා වන බව ප්‍රසිද්ධියේ කියන්නේ නැත. ඇය මේ රටේ සිංහලයන්ට සහ බෞද්ධයන්ට හිමි තැන නොපිලිගන්නා ස්ත්‍රියකි.

බ්‍රිතාන්‍යයන් විසින් අත්සන් තැබූ උඩරට ගිවිසුමේ පවා බෞද්ධාගම රැක ගැනීම උදෙසා ඔවුන් සතු වගකීම අවධාරණය වී ඇත්තේ එය මේ රටේ ඓතිහාසිකව පැවත ආ සම්ප්‍රදාය වූවා සේම එය රජවරුන් සතු යුතුකමක් සහ රාජ්‍යත්වයට ඇති හිමිකමද නිර්ණය වන සාධකයක් වි තිබුන බැවිනි. රටක ව්‍යවස්ථාව සහ නීති බවට පත් වන්නේ එම රටේ සම්ප්‍රදායයි. නමුත් බ්‍රිතාන්‍යය යටත් විජිතයක් වූ අප සතුව ඇත්තේ බ්‍රිතාන්‍යයේ සම්ප්‍රදාය මත සැකසූ ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් විනා අපගේ සම්ප්‍රදාය මත සැකසූ ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් නොවේ. කෙසේ නමුත් උඩරට ගිවිසුමට ද ඇතුලත් කර ඇති පරිදිම වත්මන් ආණ්ඩුක්‍රම ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ දෙවන පරිච්ඡේදයට අයත් වන නව වන වගන්තියට අනුව ශ්‍රී ලංකා රජය බුද්ධාගමට ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානය පිරිනැමිය යුතුය. එසේම බුද්ධ ශාසනය සුරක්ෂිත කොට පෝෂණය කිරීම රජයේ වගකීම විය යුතුය යනුවෙන්ද එහි ඇතුළත්ය.

දැන් මේ චන්ද්‍රිකා නෝනා එන්නේ මොකාටදැයි වටහා ගැනීමට අමුතු බුද්ධියක් අවශ්‍යය නොවේ. ස්වාභාවික මිනිස් ඉව ඒ සඳහා හොඳටම ප්‍රමාණවත්ය. ලංකා රජය නව ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් සකසන්නට කැස පට ගසමින් සිටියි. සැබැවින්ම එය ලංකා රජය විසින් සදන්නට යන ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් යැයි කියනවාට වඩා ගැලපෙන්නේ බටහිරයන් විසින් අප ලවා සාදවන අපේ නොවන අපේ ව්‍යවස්ථාවක් බව පැවසීමයි. මෙම ව්‍යවස්ථාව සැකසෙන්නේ නෝර්වීජියානු විශේෂඥ කෙවන් වොලන්ගේ උපදෙස් මතය. ආර් සම්බන්ධන් විපක්ෂ නායකතුමා ව්‍යවස්ථාවේ තමනට ඇති ගැටළු දන්වා යවන්නේ මේ නෝර්වේ රටේ කෙවන් වොලන්ටය. මේ ව්‍යවස්ථාව කෙබඳුදැයි තවම අප දන්නේ නැත.

නමුත් චන්ද්‍රිකා පෙළ පොත සර්ව ආගමික කිරීම හරහා නිකුත් කරන්නේ සංඥාවකි. පැහැඳිලි සංඥාවකි. නැතිනම් චන්ද්‍රිකාට ඉස්කෝලේ පොත් මතක් වෙන වයසක් නොවේ මේ. මුලින්ම එන්නේ සර්ව ආගමික පාසල් පෙළ පොතක්, බුද්ධාගමට ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානය ලබා දී නැති පාසල් පෙළ පොතක්. ඉන් පසුව එන්නේ බුද්ධාගමට ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානය නැති ව්‍යවස්ථාවක්. බුද්ධාගමට ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානය නැති රටක්.

පෙළ පොත හරහා කාර්යයන් දෙකක් සාක්ෂාත් කර ගත හැකිය. එකක් මුලින් මුට්ටිය දමා බැලීමය. මේ මුට්ටියට කුඩු වෙන්න ගැහුවද හොරා පසුබසිනු ඇත්තේ තාවකාලිකවය. මේ හොරා මෙහය වන්නේ බටහිර අධිරාජ්‍යවාදී බලවතුන් විසිනි. ව්‍යවස්ථාව සදන්නේ නෝර්වේ රටින් උපදෙස් ගනිමිනි. එනිසා හොරාටද හොරකමේ යනවා හැරෙන්න වෙන විකල්පයක් නැත. ඉන් සාක්ෂාත් කර ගන්නා දෙවන කාරණය ඊටත් වඩා අතිශය භයානකය. එනම් මතවාදීව බුද්ධාගමට ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානයක් හිමි විය යුතු නැතැයි තහවුරු කර ගැනීමයි. පෙළ පොතට මේ වෙනස කරන විට බොහෝ දෙනෙකු ඒ ගැන එතරම් උනන්දු නොවන, බිය නොවන හේතුවක් තිබේ. ඒ ළමුන්ට අන් ආගම් ගැනද වැටහීමක් ලැබීමේ කිසියම් සාධනීය පැත්තක්ද ඇති බැවිනි. එහි සත්‍යයක්ද තිබේ. නමුත් චන්ද්‍රිකා…. ඇය දැන් කල්පනා කරන්නේ ළමුන්ගේ අධ්‍යාපනය ගැනද? අපි ඇය ගැන දනිමු. ගොනා හැරෙන්නේ පොල් පැළයට වැඩේ දීමට බව අපට පෙනී යා යුතුය.

මුලින් පෙළ පොත සර්ව ආගමික කළ පසු සියළු ආගම් මේ රට තුළ සමස්ථානයේ ලා සැලකිය යුතු බවට මතයක් පසුව තහවුරු කර ගැනීම පහසු වේ. කිසිදු ආගමකට ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානයක් අවැසි නැති බව පවසනු ඇත. අවශ්‍ය නම් බුද්ධාගමට ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානය ලබා දීම බෞද්ධ ධර්මයට පවා පටහැණි යැයි උගන්වන ඊනියා උගතුන් කිහිප දෙනෙකුද කළ එළි බසිනු ඇත. අඥාන සිංහලයාට මෙය වැටහෙන කොට පෙරහැර ගිහින්ය. බුද්ධාගමට හිමි ප්‍රමුඛස්ථානය ඉවත් කිරීම සඳහා චන්ද්‍රිකාලා රනිල්ලා හරහා බටහිරයන් ඉතා දක්ෂ අයුරින් මානසික පරිවර්තනයක් සැලසුම් කර ක්‍රියාත්මක කරන බව අපට දැන් පෙනී යා යුතුය. එය මෙරට මහා සංඝයා වහන්සේ ඇතුළු බෞද්ධ දායක දායිකාවන්ගේ අප්‍රමාදි අවධානයටවත් ලක් විය යුතුය. හොරා අල්ලා ගැනීම කෙසේ වෙතත් මුට්ටිය බිද දැමීමටවත් මේ සියළු දෙනා නින්දෙන් අවදි විය යුතුය. නැතිනම් අපට වසර දෙදහස් පන්සියයකට වඩා පැවත ආ සම්ප්‍රදායට, අලිඛිත ව්‍යවස්ථාවට සහ ලිඛිත ව්‍යවස්ථාවට පටහැණි රටක් බිහි වීමට ඇත්තේ තවත් වසර දෙකකට අඩු කාලයක් බව සිහි කැඳවා ගත යුතුය. යළි යටත්විජිතකරණයට ලක් වූ මේ දේශයේ අප ගත කරන්නේ ඉතිහාසය වෙනස් කරවන සන්ධියක් පසු කරන ඉතාම තීරණාත්මක අවධියකි. නිදිගෙන සිටියහොත් සොරා ගෙයි වටිනා කියන කිසිවක් ඉතිරි නොකරනු නිසැකය.

–ලසන්ත වික්‍රමසිංහ
යුතුකම සංවාද කවය

https://www.facebook.com/laughingmaithree/videos/1544262122554290/

Courtesy Ceylon Today